


The City is at War

by Arodana



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-09
Updated: 2015-01-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 03:59:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 25,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/961310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arodana/pseuds/Arodana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi and Eren were just two average juniors...who hate each other with equal intensities. They come from different sides of the street, Eren poor and Levi rich. Both are forced to work together in their history class on a group project. Things seem to heat up after a while, and Eren may realize why he and Levi actually stopped being good friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

As always the mornings in the Yeager household where less than what was called peaceful, for screaming and shouting were always heard right away. Of course it was nothing but sibling banter, and they always consisted of the same argument.

"Eren! Get your ass out of bed! We are going to be late for school!"

The brunet flipped onto his side, using his pillow to wrap around his head to cover both ears. Eren woke up to the same thing every other day. If it wasn't get out of bed it was get out of the bathroom. The teen was never fond of getting up in the mornings. It didn't help that the school that the two siblings attended was full of obnoxious, privileged teens. Eren and Mikasa weren't on green side of the pasture, more of the dead yellowed grass that no one wanted to see.

There was the sound of another loud bang, "Eren I am going to count to five and I swear to fucking God if you are not at this door I will drag you out."

"One."

She didn't really mean it.

"Two."

Mikasa wouldn't do that, she wasn't that  _picky_ about being a little late.

"Three."

Eren began to stir, and shifted to his back. Eyes stared blankly a head as he listened to his angry sister prove she can count.

"Four."

Fuck. Eren jumped out of bed and bolted to the door. He opened it just as Mikasa started to say five. "I'm up woman! Geez, now can I get dressed or am I going to arrive in nothing but a pair of boxers?"

Eren motioned his hand in a downward fashion to give an exaggerated point. Mikasa rolled her eyes, and blew at her bangs. She then waved her hand before she turned on her heel to leave towards the kitchen. Eren gave a smug look; it was rare that he won a battle with his infamous sister.

After the morning dispute, Eren stepped into what was considered the Kitchen to find Mikasa tapping away impatiently. "Are you ready to go?"

"More so than I ever will," Eren yawned, "Let's just go to the hell-hole before I decide to play sick."

"Dad isn't home to call you in, so you would be truant. No way in hell am I letting you be truant."

Eren groaned. It wasn't common for their father to be gone. He would come home in time to pay for any bills and leave some cash on the table for food and barely any gas. Ever since their mother passed away things had become more rough than usual. It was hard enough being poor, and it was unknown what their dad did for a living.

Grisha Yeager used to be a successful doctor, until budget cuts were made. He lost his job shortly after Eren was born and things have been difficult since. They went from a nice home to the shithole of house that is now currently occupied by the Yeager's. Eren was pretty sure his dad got money from doing illegal medical practices in the underworld, but that was just a theory. The teen never really bothered to ask since his relationship with his father wasn't too great at the moment.

Mikasa cleared her throat and led the way to the rundown 1997 White Jeep Grand Cherokee that occupied their gravel driveway. The vehicle was barely working, but it was enough to allow Eren and Mikasa to occasionally go somewhere, or get to school.

* * *

The black haired girl unlocked the car and threw her bag in the back and Eren copied her actions before occupying the passenger seat. Mikasa backed out of their shitty drive from their small home before driving towards the place that would be the end of all confidence.

Eren stood at his locker, messing with the thing until he was able to have the damn thing open. With a groan he starred at the books that were piled inside and decided which ones he would actually need, and he quickly shut the locker door. He wouldn't need any of the books, today was day to just not give a shit.

The brunet turned to see his locker partner right behind him, "Oh! Hey Armin, you scared me!"

The blond just grinned, "Sorry Eren. Why didn't you grab any books? Don't you have English 3 first period?"

The junior groaned, "Yeah, but I'm not gonna need a book. I don't need any books."

Armin raised a brow, but brushed it off. He wasn't one to question Eren's choices, and that's why he was one of Eren's best friends.

Armin Arlert had a bit of an easier life than Eren. Sure the kid lost both parents, but his grandfather had a good amount of money to get the two through any problems. Armin understood that Eren had a bit of a rough life, and was never one to push out any information. He had gotten use to Eren's choices by now.

"Whatever you say, buddy."

Armin nudged the taller of the two to the side to get into the green locker. "Are you going to the football game tonight?"

The brunet tugged on his backpack strap, and ran a hand through his already tousled hair. "No, I don't have a reason to really go. I think Mikasa is going with Annie or somethin'. Why?"

The blond pulled out an AP Calc book before shrugging, "No reason. I was thinking about going is all," Armin slid the book into his book bag and his placed it on the floor, "Though if you won't be there I may not go."

Armin shimmied out of his letterman jacket and hung it on one of the hooks in the shared locker, "Oh really? You aren't going to go see a certain someone work their ass off on that field?"

A blush danced across Armin's face, his blue eyes widening for a second, "No! Why would you think I would go to see Jean?"

Armin covered his mouth realizing what he said, and Eren chuckled, "I think I made my point," The brunet looked up when the bell rang to signify it was time to get to class, "Whelp, time to go make an ass out of my English teacher. See ya Armin!"

"Mr. Yeager! What were some differences between Puritan and Native American literature?"

The teen blinked before shrugging, he hadn't been paying attention. The action earned him an audible 'tch' from the student next to him. The teen glared over at the short junior beside him, and he was met back with an equally intense gaze.

Levi and Eren don't get along. Levi came from a wealthy family, while Eren suffered from poverty. Levi was always clean in appearance, and Eren always looked filthy in some form. On top of that, Levi was somehow popular with his negative attitude, and the Quarterback on the Maria High Football team. Grey eyes flicked away from the turquoise ones as Levi raised his hand to give the correct answer.

"Yes Levi?"

"Puritans were very strict in their ideals of God, and cared nothing for nature. Native Americans were more connected with nature, and had a more mythological approach to their gods."

"Very good," Mr. Tod exclaimed, "Oh and good luck in your game tonight! Homecoming game is always a big one."

Levi nodded in thanks and raised a thin brow in Eren's direction. The brunet was red with rage, and turned away from the short teen to avoid getting into a fight. A fight he knew he wouldn't win.

The rest of English seemed to drag on, and his next class with Biology 2. At least Armin was in that class and he actually enjoyed his teacher. Miss Hanji was always fun to be around, more fun than Mr. Tod anyway.

The bell rang signifying class to be over and Eren practically raced out the door to his next class. In the process he bumped into Levi, who managed to follow him and grab roughly on Eren's backpack. "Aren't you going to say you're sorry brat?"

The taller teen glanced down at the angry Levi before him, "Fucking serious? You followed me all the way here to make me say sorry? Well fuck you," Eren jerked out of his grip, "You got some serious issues dickwad."

Levi fumed and crossed his arms, "You need some fucking manners you dirty piece of shit."

"Manners? You just pulled me  _by my backpack_ to make me apologize for bumping into you on accident! Now if you'll excuse me I have more important things than to put up with your pathetic ass."

Eren purposefully shoved Levi's shoulder as he passed by to go towards his class once more. A circle had started to gather around, eager eyes had been watching them. The crowd hungered for a fight, the rich kid against the poor kid. Those were always the most entertaining of fights. Eren was surprised that Levi didn't try to drag him back into an argument. Though one thing would lead to another and a fight would break out, and then Levi wouldn't be able to play tonight. That was the last thing Maria High needed.

When he finally reached Biology, Armin was already sitting at one of the lab tables with his books scattered about and notes ready for taking. The studying teen didn't even glance up as a chair was pulled next to him and Eren tossed his bag to the ground. Armin shifted slightly to make more room for his friend, and put away a majority of the books on the table except for their Bio book. "You took longer than usual. A minuet longer and you would be tardy."

Eren growled, "Levi tried to make me apologize for some stupid shit. Well more like attempted. He can't really get into fights right now can he?"

Armin sighed and placed down the mechanical pencil he was writing with. He flicked his knowing gaze over to the brunet, "Don't let him get to you Eren," The teen stretched up his arms to pull his blond hair back into a ponytail, "I don't understand what happened to you guys. You used to be good friends."

"I know about my past Armin. Just when High School started, he joined football and he made new friends."

"That doesn't explain why you still aren't friends with him."

Eren clenched his hand as he scanned his memory as to why the two weren't friends anymore, "I think we go into an argument? I don't know Armin that was two years ago a lot has happened since then. Plus we are both changed."

Armin nudged Eren playfully, "What are you talking about? You are still the same hothead from Elementary."

The brunet gave a glare, and shoved Armin. The blond gave out a giggle before going silent as Miss Hanji walked in. "Alright class! Today we are going to experiment! I'm sure you will have fun doing," The teacher pushed her glasses up her nose as she began to grin, "I know I will."

The experiment didn't seem to go as planned, and Miss Hanji ended up cackling madly as one of the students freaked out about a wingless fruit fly touching his hand. Everyone was in hysterics about the whole thing outside of Eren and Armin who were caught up in their own world. Biology 2 was the only glass Eren was passing with ease, and it helped that Armin was there.

Eren just generally enjoyed Biology, which explained his passing grade. His other classes he really didn't care for too much. Sadly Biology always seemed and he would find himself going through the other classes slowly.

The brunet always had to begin his day and end it with Levi. It wasn't a pleasant schedule to have. Of course if this was the past then he would be ecstatic, but that isn't the case.

It wasn't too bad during History though, because they sat on opposite sides of the room. Eren didn't even have to acknowledge the shorter teen's presence. Well, today was different story.

"Ok class. As you know, Midterm is coming up. Instead of a test like most classes," Mr. Smith rustled so papers as he pushed up from his desk to hand out what was in his hand, "You are going to be doing a project over whatever you have learned so far. You won't be working alone so don't worry."

There was sigh of relief released from the students, "But, I picked partners for you," a few groans replaced the sighs, "No complaints. Ok so partners are: Christa and Ymir, Reiner and Berthodlt," Mr. Smith continued reading off names until he came to the end, "…and Levi and Eren. Please meet together until the end of class and discuss what you want to do. Remember it must be from this unit!"

Eren's body froze as he made eye contact with shocked grey eyes. They were going to be forced to work together, and this was definitely not going to end well. The two teens shifted up from their desk and went to meet in a corner of the room. "So," Levi started, "What do we want to do?"

The voice was calm, but his face read murderous intent. Levi's teeth were clenched and his brows furrowed. Eren shrugged, "Dunno don't care."

Levi pinched the bridge of his nose, "Then figure it out you brat. I don't have time to waste on your mumbling ass, nor do I have the grade that I want to drop. Unlike you I actually give a damn about school."

The brunet sneered at the words, "Whatever, why don't we just pick something easy to do like something from the French Revolution."

Levi perked from Eren's choice, "I guess that will do. Now don't fuck this up for me or I will tear you a new one!"

This was going to be a long project.


	2. Chapter 2

The last thirty minutes of history couldn't have gone any slower. Eren and Levi sat in silence after a quick decision to go over the French Revolution and focus more specifically on Napoleon Bonaparte. Eren had to silently chuckle to himself when he found Levi similar to the man, but of course Levi would always be shorter. Levi stood at the impressive height of 5'3 while Bonaparte was 5'7. Still their attitudes seemed to be somewhat similar from what Eren could recall about the historical man.

Eren shifted uncomfortable when he saw that Levi had been staring at him for the past few minutes when he had been off in his own world. "What?"

Levi blinked, seeming to not have noticed Eren being in his line of sight, "What do you mean, 'what'?"

"You were staring at me."

"Was I now? Huh," Levi crossed his arms and sat up in his seat, "I didn't notice."

Eren rolled his eyes, like he actually bought that crap. To think that they used to be the closest of friends, and it had actually started to bother Eren that he couldn't remember what tore them apart. He could always ask the frowning teen but that would involve having to actually interact with the bitter Levi, and Eren really didn't enjoy that too much.

He started to fidget with his fingers, trying to think of what happened. "Now you are staring at me."

Levi's voice caused him to refocus, "Oh, well…" Eren actually hesitated and decided to wing it, "What happened? To you and me? We used to be the close-"

"You don't fucking remember? Wow, aren't I honoured," The bell rang, "Fuck you Eren. I am only going to tolerate you for this period since we are forced to work together, so don't expect to get anything out of me."

The brunet sat there with shock blatantly displayed across his features. Was it really that bad? Eren suddenly felt a rush of anger mixed with disappointment as he grabbed his light bag and stormed out of the classroom to find Mikasa and Armin.

He found them huddled in the parking lot with their letterman jackets and scarves wrapped around their necks. They displayed school pride like no other, and Eren always found it amusing except for today. Mikasa cocked a brow, "What's wrong Eren?"

Eren growled, "I got placed with Levi as a partner for History. I am not looking forward to this at all."

Mikasa frowned slightly, she never really approved of Levi in the first place. She saw the always negative teen as a threat towards her brother and saw him as a bad influence. Levi was always so strict but ironically never watched what he said or what jokes he tried to crack. Sure he was a privileged rich kid, but Mikasa always assumed he did drugs.

Armin gave a passive sigh, "Sorry to hear about that Eren. Well I have to get going, I have to go to work here soon, so I will see you guys at the game tonight right?"

Mikasa nodded but Eren shrugged, still unsure if he was going to show up. The tickets weren't too expensive but the money could be spent on other things such as food. They could never carelessly spend money; even Mikasa had to wait a long time before getting her letterman jacket. She had to save up for a few months.

Eren opened to door to their barely functioning car and hoped in while tossing his bag in the back. Mikasa followed after him and started the car. The car stalled a few times before actually starting up, and that was a relief to both. Mikasa pushed the gas pedal and shifted the car forward and both were off to home.

* * *

The sound of the band was playing loudly as kids all around were cheering for the Titans. Eren sat grumpily, bundled up in his green jacket to keep him warm from the late autumn breeze. Mikasa was chatting away with Annie, and Armin was searching the field with excitement, looking for a certain someone. The Titans came bursting on to the field with Levi leading the charge. The cheerleaders let out a loud call and started a familiar school chant and their head cheerleader, Petra Ral, was giving the crowd her biggest smile as she called out the letters to spell Titans.

Eren wasn't sure why he came in the first place. He didn't understand the concept of football, and always ended up wandering around the arena or chatting to Connie, who was usually equally confused as Eren.

Connie was always dragged along by Sasha. Sasha had a passion for two things: food and sports. Eren scanned the bleachers around him and saw the duo not too far away and made note of their position if he needed some entertainment.

The teen's averted back to the players on the field; the game was getting ready to start. He could see the other team pointing at Levi and sniggering.

Despite his dislike for Levi, Eren did understand why the short teen was the QB. Sure it was a little unusual to see someone of that stature to being playing in football as a valuable player but height aside, Levi was the quickest on the field, and the most skilled. It was always a site to see when Levi was fully focused, and he was like a blur of colour when he wanted to be.

Eren smirked, the other team was in for a surprise. The teen stopped once he realized the expression he was making and glanced over to the girls on his right. Mikasa had stopped talking to Annie and was not watching the field. Annie was just as focused, both waiting in anticipation.

Finally everything was in motion, the teams were scattering about and someone was quickly tackled. The whistle was blown, and that was when Eren decided that he shouldn't have come. He would never understand football. He poked Mikasa's shoulder, "Hey I'm going to go walk around. I'll be back before the game is over."

Mikasa nodded, and Eren pushed up from his seat to make his way to the walk way. The brunet pushed his way through a crowd of teenagers and past some obnoxiously loud kids whom he assumed to be freshmen. He threw them a dirty look and he only got sniggers in response until he stopped moving to give them a full on glare. The freshmen boys stopped laughing and went silent. Eren moved along after he felt satisfied with scaring them and soon found himself in a less crowded area. There was a loud cheer and he turned back to see that the Titans had scored a touchdown. It wasn't really a surprise, Maria High was high ranking when it came to sports. They were the school everyone hated to play and they barely lost. Then when Levi joined on the Varsity team, they became unstoppable.

Eren kicked at a pebble that was by his shoe as he walked in the brisk night with only the light from the stadium to light his path. He allowed his mind to wander, thinking about the days previous events. He mentally punched himself for thinking so much about Levi today, it was an odd occurrence. He just passed it off as having to work with the raven haired teen in History class.

That thought caused Eren to recall Levi's words from earlier. Eren's hands curled into a fist, and tried to think of what happened when they were younger. The only thing he could recall was it happened before they go into high school. Maybe he stole Levi's girlfriend? No, Levi never showed interest in dating someone. Did he let a secret out about Levi? No, everyone knew the basics about Levi. It wasn't a secret that his family was from Paris, France. It wasn't a secret that he had a temper or that he spoke fluently in French.

Eren growled and came to a halt; the sound of ravenous cheering reached his ears. He then heard a buzzer go off to signify the game being over. "Shit!"

He had forgotten to go back to Mikasa. The teen looked vigorously around, trying to see if his sister had followed him. Not seeing her anywhere, instead of going back to the bleachers, Eren decided it would be best to go wait at the car.

It felt like forever before Mikasa was finally in his line of sight. Petra was at her side talking animatedly and Annie was nodding in acknowledgement. Sasha and Connie were right behind them, but took a different path to get to their car. Armin was nowhere in sight, and curiosity shot through Eren like a bullet. Obviously nothing was wrong since Mikasa was calm and collected. Before he took off to meet Mikasa and the gang half way, Eren found Armin.

Armin was walking beside Jean and Levi was right behind them. Jean was smiling softly as he spoke to Armin, and the blond was blushing but was trying to cover it up. Levi on the other hand didn't look amused, more of a pissy look really. Armin looked up to see Eren and waved him over, Eren hesitated but went over anyway.

"Hey Eren, I'm going with Jean to a party so I won't be coming home with you and Mikasa."

"Oh, alright. I guess I'll see you Monday?"

Armin nodded, "Yep, see you then!"

Jean averted course and Armin trotted to catch up with him. Levi gave a scowl at Eren before going his own direction to his own car. Eren just frowned at what just happened and went back to the car that would now be full of girls. When hoped in everyone was giggling.

"What's so funny?"

Petra looked back with big eyes, "Slumber party!"

"Son of a bitch."

Eren sunk down in the back seat and tried to make himself disappear. He could see it now, unwanted hair styles and mani-pedis. Mikasa just smirked as Annie gave him a light punch in the shoulder. This whole day was just a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are enjoying everything so far!  
> I don't know much about football, so no real football scene! Sorry if you were hoping for one!


	3. Chapter 3

Music was playing softly in the background as Eren's hair got tugged on in three different ways. Why he allowed the girls to do this, he wasn't sure. Petra was braiding away as she chattered about the cutest guy on the football team, and Mikasa would nod occasionally. Mikasa was pulling Eren's hair into little pigtails and pulling them out again, always unsatisfied with how they looked. Annie would twist his hair and attempt to get his hair to stick out in a funny way; the occasional sigh would escape her mouth at every other word that came out of Petra's.

Eren hunched over slightly, the feeling of defeat flowed through him. Petra gave him a light smack on his back and he instantly straightened up. A scowl danced across his features as he realized that the girls had him trained like a dog. If Eren leaned to the left, Mikasa would smack his leg. If he would lean to the right, Annie would clear her throat and tug at his hair. He was in a never ending cycle.

He reached out to the bowl of popcorn that was in front of him and popped a handful into his mouth. He zoned in on Petra's talking. "Y'know that Oluo is really getting on my nerves. I mean I see him as a friend and all, but seriously. He is trying to mimic Levi in more ways than one. I don't think he understands that acting like Levi doesn't make him better. I want him to be his own person for once."

"Maybe he is trying to get you to like him, and acting like that shorty with a temper is the way to get to your heart," Annie snickered as Petra blushed madly, "It's obvious that you have a crush on him. It can be the classic high school tale."

Mikasa let out a small laugh, "The head cheerleader and the quarterback. What a tale that would be. Hey what about you Annie? You got two guys hanging around you; one of them has to like you or vice versa."

Annie dropped her small smile and gave a glare instead and focused her attention on Eren's hair. It was obvious that she didn't like people assuming things, for there was more to meet the eye in that trio. Eren decided that he was having enough of this gossip, "Can I please go to my room now?"

All three girls responded at once, "No."

Eren gave a defeated sigh as he pulled the popcorn bowl closer to him, and resumed to eat it in an endless chain. "Hey! You are gonna eat all the popcorn!"

Petra cried out loudly as she pulled the bowl away from her, and placed it out of Eren's reach. The brunet groaned with irritation. He last glimpse of freedom was now gone, the popcorn was lost, and so was his hope of getting out of this damned slumber party.

When the girls finally passed out, Eren took his chance to run to his room before one of them stirred. He really hated it when he was forced to be involved in such girly things. Eren liked to consider himself the man in the family, for his father had his sketchy appearances. Being the man of the family, Eren preferred not to be placed in such pathetic positions.

He sighed as he head hit his own pillow, thankful that the girls didn't usually stay up late. The teen didn't even understand why they came over to Yeager household in the first place, it wasn't anything special. It was big enough for Mikasa and Eren to each have a room to themselves, but everything else was pretty small. What was considered the living room had only a few feet away from the back of the couch. There was a kitchen table squished in that distance that was always littered with mail and cereal boxes. In reality this place was kind of abandoned in all forms of care. Mikasa didn't care for the mess, and neither did Eren.

Apparently those Annie and Petra didn't either. Petra's house would actually be better since she is a bit on the wealthier side, but she is too nice for her own good. She doesn't care that she has to sleep on the floor or the run down couch, or that she barely gets a breakfast in the morning. Petra was just someone who appreciated being around her friends.

Annie's hose was just as bad as their house, so it never made a difference.

Sleep finally hit Eren's lids, and the brunet fell in to a dreamless slumber.

Eren woke up to the sound of giggling and loud talking. With a groan the teenager pushed up from his pillow and his hair suddenly felt strange. He ran a hand through it to find small braids coming undone and his hair sticking up in odd angles. With a growl Eren pulled out the small elastics that held his braids, and now had a side of wavy hair. Thank god he didn't have school today.

Eren got up and scanned his cluttered space before stretching upwards to hear a satisfying pop, and left to go get breakfast. The floor creaked under his heavy footfalls and the girls went silent on hearing his approach. All three focused on him and Petra gave him a smile as she put a spoonful of cereal in her mouth, "Mornin'!"

"Good morning, what is there to eat?"

"Fruit Loops and more Fruit Loops, the usual Eren."

Mikasa's voice cracked, it was still warming up from being awake from sleep. Annie just gave a nod as she carefully picked at her cereal, keeping to herself as usual. Eren let out a sigh, and went to get some milk and a bowl of cereal. His attention focused on Petra when he heard her snort, "My God, Eren your hair!"

Eren growled, "It's your damn fault! You had to braid my hair."

"Hey! I'm not the one who forgot to take them out!"

Petra whined and Eren let out another defeated sigh. He wasn't too fond of fighting with Petra, for she was one of the few people, outside of Armin and Mikasa, that seemed to not mind his presence. He was never sure about Annie, some days she wouldn't talk to him and other days she would. Annie was just a mystery to him.

He placed his bowl down and took a seat between Annie and Mikasa and silently ate his cereal. The girls were strangely quiet and giving exasperated expressions to each other across the table. Eren chose to ignore it and resumed eating his cereal, frowning every so often as his history project popped into his head. Eren was determined to be the most difficult partner ever, and barely do any research. If he lucked out it could be a group grade, and he could bring Levi down to his level. That prick wasn't going to pass this project with an A that was for sure.

"…en...Eren! Hello Earth to Eren!"

Petra was snapping in front of his face, and the brunet jumped from the girl's actions. He didn't realize he had zoned out completely. "Now Annie."

Eren braced for something physical, and covered his face. Though he felt her tug his arms down as she made some eye contact, and he straightened up. "Eren, quit acting stupid, I just have a question."

The brunet stared at the blonde in front of him, curious to what question she actually had. Annie looked a bit flustered and Petra and Mikasa were watching eagerly. Petra made a motion for Annie to spit out her words and Eren suddenly became aware of everything at once. Annie's strange actions right now weren't helping, and his heart was pounding in his ears. Something serious was about to happen, he could sense it.

"Um, well you know how homecoming is next weekend and…" Annie looked down slightly embarrassed, "I was wondering, well you don't have to, but if you would want to go with me? I know the guy usually ask the girl but Mikasa said you would be completely oblivious."

Eren's mouth dropped, he hadn't expected Annie to want to go anywhere with him, especially like him. Mikasa had been right, he had been completely oblivious.

Annie opened her mouth once more, her hair covering her face, "You know you can just for-"

"Sure, why not? It'll be fun right?"

Annie looked up in shock and a small smile graced her face, "Yeah."

Petra was giggling like a maniac and Mikasa simply ate her cereal in peace, her expression neutral. Annie continued eating her Fruit Loops in a more upbeat mood, which was really unusual for her. Eren continued on with his slightly frustrating thoughts, a frown crossing his features every so often and Petra was humming to herself.

Eren soon excused himself and rushed to the bathroom to get his shower in before the girls decided to shower and use up all the hot water. Mikasa could tell what he was doing and rushed behind him before he closed the door, and she started to yell through the door. There was laughter in the distance, and with one last bang Mikasa gave up and returned to the two girls she had left behind.

The brunet undressed himself and hopped into the scalding shower before lowering the heat just a bit. He wasn't sure how he felt about going with Annie to homecoming, but he was going to give it a shot. Like he had said earlier, it could be fun. It was just strange that Annie had a crush on him. He began to wonder when the crush developed, and why him of all people? Eren didn't think himself to be the most attractive guy out there, all he thought he had were his eyes. The brunet had always gotten complements on his exotic blue-green eyes, it almost annoyed him. Though Annie apparently saw something that he couldn't see, and he wanted to know why. Of course he wasn't going to go straight up and ask, but Eren was aware that he had anger issues. It wasn't an attractive trait, so there had to be something else.

A knock brought him out of his thoughts, "Eren, hurry the fuck up! There are three of us that want to take showers."

Eren finished washing his body and quickly got out and wrapped a towel around his waist. He opened the door to see an irritated trio, and he merely smirked, "It's all yours ladies."

Mikasa rolled her eyes and pushed past him and Eren went to his bedroom to change. He came out with his hair still damp and joined Petra and Annie on the couch to watch what cartoons were on that shitty TV in the Yeager household.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't hurt me for the slight Eren and Annie I have a plan for that I promise!!! I'm not even sure if they will even date after homecoming.
> 
> Anyway, I know the hc game was in the last chapter but I wanted to wait just a little bit before actually having the homecoming dance. Hence the weekend after the game. Plus it doesn't hurt to do things differently, you feel me?


	4. Chapter 4

Eren walked around the old couch and forced himself between Petra and Annie. Petra gave a slight smack from his forcible behavior but still shifted to allow him to sit. Annie shifted slightly with no complaint but say close enough to where their shoulders still brushed. All three sat in a comfortable silence with their eyes glued to the screen as they were waiting for Mikasa.

After a few more minutes the sound of a door opening caused all three to look back and Mikasa emerged from the steam-filled bathroom full dressed and her hair still wet from the recent shower. She stretched a bit before entering the living room, “What time do you girls want to leave?”

Eren blinked a few times in confusion. Leave? It was a Saturday, knowing them they would stay another night. “Where’re you guys goin’?”

Petra clucked her tongue at him, “We are going to the mall. Look at cute boys and all that fun stuff. Plus I need help finding a new dress for homecoming, and maybe new outfit too.”

The male of the group groaned, “That sounds super boring.”

“That’s why I said ‘girls’ and not ‘Eren and Co.’ you dork,” Mikasa crossed her arms with a smirk plastered on her face, “You would totally scare off any cute boys any way. Well, maybe you should go so no one snatches Annie up.”

Annie blushed, “Mikasa you can be such an ass. I was thinking we could leave soon since it’s almost 11 o’clock.”  
Both Mikasa and Petra glanced at the digital clock that sat on the TV. They nodded in agreement, “Yeah ok, just let me dry my hair and we can get going.”

  
The raven haired girl turned on her heel, and Eren pushed himself of the couch. He stretched before reaching for his green jacket that had been tossed to the floor. If the girls were going out, it wouldn’t kill him to get out himself. Of course Mikasa would take the car, but he didn’t mind walking. He would usually walk to the park, it took a while but it was better than just staying at home.

“Where are you going?”

“Out. If you girlies don’t mind me leaving the house. Unless I am forever trapped and to be whipped if I step outside the yard.”  
Annie gave a smirk, “Well if you’re offering.”

Eren blushed and pulled his hood over his head, “I’m not! Oh God, just tell Mikasa that I’m heading out. You guys will probably see me on your way to the mall anyway.”  
He didn’t wait to hear a response and practically sprinted out the door. His cheeks burned from embarrassment, Annie was quick on the whip with those kind of come backs. Eren slowed his pace as strong burst of wind hit him dead on in the face. It wasn’t supposed to be too cold today, but bursts of wind were usually a recurring thing in Maria City.

After a couple minutes that familiar white jeep drove past him with a few quick honks. Eren flipped the girls off in response and stuck out his tongue. He should’ve asked for a ride to the park, but a little exercise wouldn’t kill him. In fact, Eren wasn’t one to brag, but he does manage to remain in shape and fit. Both he and Mikasa have experienced being in fights, and Eren decided that it would be best to try and maintain the upper hand. Despite the lack of preferable nutrition both of them do their best.

Eren regretted his outfit choice a bit when another burst of wind shot through the air. His white v-neck t-shirt didn’t provide a lot of warmth. At least his jacket was warm and he had chosen to wear his black jeans.

After a few more minutes of walking the teen shifted his hood further to where his face was barely visible. The park seemed extra crowded today. There were joggers and couples walking along the walking trail that surrounded the whole area. Kids with jackets and scarves were running around and climbing on the giant trees. There was one space that wasn’t occupied though. Eren sighed and made his way over.

The large tree sat separate from the rest, and had a large base that opened to a semi-circle from how the roots pushed up from the earth. The leaves were practically gone so no shade was provided, but the tree was positioned perfectly to where the wind didn’t have much affect on those who sat against it.

  
Eren had been coming to this tree since he was little, he and Levi used to always play on the tree. But then they had their fall out, and Eren ended up showing up to the tree by himself. A few of the adults that had known Levi and Eren to always be together started to question him, but he never gave a full response.

  
The teen took a seat against the tree, mentally smacking himself for letting Levi get back on the brain. Plus he hasn’t seen the raven-haired teen at the park in a long time. Maybe time to time they would both be jogging but that was very rare.  
“You gotta be fucking me.”

A voice caught Eren’s attention and he looked up, “Shit.”

Levi was glaring down at Eren, books in hand as he contemplated sitting down next to the teen or to just leave. “Well I didn’t just walk here to have to turn around.”

  
The shorter teen dropped his stuff down to the grass as he opened the bag that rested on his shoulder. He pulled out a red blanket that he placed on the ground neatly and sat on it, ignoring Eren the rest of the time. Eren groaned and moved over as far as he could from Levi, like hell he was just going to get up and leave.

  
Crossing his arms, the brunet rested his head against the tree. He watched the sky as clouds floated by and did his best to ignore the unwanted company. Yet that didn’t stop his eyes from scanning over to Levi. Levi had his nose in a book and would occasionally scratch something down on notebook that rested by his side. “What are you writing?”

Levi remained silent and continued on as if Eren never spoke, “Hey I asked you a question.”

“And I am ignoring it.”

“Oh so you can hear me,” Eren frowned, why was he even trying to talk to him? “What are you writing?”

Levi’s nose crinkled as his features shifted into an irritated glare. He slammed the book shut and looked over at Eren, “I am working on our project for History.”  
Eren shrugged, “That isn’t due for another week, why rush?”

Levi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Why are you even talking to me?”  
The brunet shifted to where he was looking down, “Well you sat here, and I think its fun to bother the hell out of you.”

  
That was lie, he actually didn’t like to bother Levi too much. He didn’t want Levi to even think he cared enough to bother him. The two had a silent agreement to leave each other alone, of course they would have little fights here and there, but they wouldn’t last long.

Levi sneered at him before returning to his work. This wasn’t going to work. Eren gave a frustrated groan and pushed up from the ground. Before he took a step he heard Levi sigh, something he seems to be doing a lot lately, “Wait. You were here first. Unlike you I am not in the mood to pick any fights today. I’ll go somewhere else.”

At that Levi collected his things and headed off in a different direction. The teen stood there in shock. “What just happened?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yooo this took me a loong as time to get up. Sorry!  
> Anywho, I am considering doing the next chapter in Levi's perspective.


	5. Chapter 5

He didn’t expect to run into him when he arrived to the large tree in the park. Levi had be surprised when he saw Eren relaxing against the tree. The shorter teen didn’t even know Eren remembered the place. Levi couldn’t help but let the next words slip out of his mouth, “You gotta be fucking me.”

Eren’s stupid gaze flicked up to look at him with those stupid beautiful...no not beautiful, gross. Yes those stupid gross eyes of his. It didn’t take long for Levi to make up his mind to stay, but Eren wasted little time to start bugging him. Then when he got up to left Levi felt a bit of guilt. He was in a good mood so why not let the brat have what he wants? Just this one time though, he doesn’t want Eren to think that he might actually be starting to warm up to him again.

Levi left without letting Eren give an idiotic response. He really didn’t want to leave, that tree held a lot of happy memories. Which may be why Eren was there. It was an excellent relaxing place, and Eren did look cu- “What the hell is wrong with me?”

He groaned which quickly earned him some strange looks from passing parents. He glared at them and they quickly averted their gaze. Recently Eren had been on his brain more than he liked. Actually, since middle school Eren was constantly on his mind.

Levi clenched his books closer to his chest, and kept his eyes focus. He didn’t want those thoughts resurfacing again. He didn’t want to be reminded about why he had a major crush on the big idiot...a crush that was apparently still very real.

Yet the situation the two teens were caught in made any intimate feelings very difficult to express. They now uphold this huge scene of both of them hating each other. Levi could never bring himself to fully hate Eren. Sure he put on the act, but it’s not like he enjoyed. Of course yesterday he had wanted to just normally talk to Eren, but couldn’t bring himself to start a normal conversation.

“Three fucking years I’ve put up with this shit,” Levi muttered under his breath as he braced against the wind, “When will it stop?”

Levi finally made it back to his house after ten minutes of walking. He really didn’t live far from the park, Eren had a longer walk than he did. After sifting through his pockets, he pulled out his house keys and unlocked the door. He walked in to find his mother pulling her coat on and was reaching for her purse. “Oh, Rivaille you were not gone very long.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

She frowned, “ _Pourquoi?_ You usually stay out until dinner.”

Levi returned the frown as he placed his things on the table near the door, “I didn’t feel like staying at the park. There were some...unpleasant people there.”

His mom softened her features. She was really quite beautiful, with her dark hair and round, grey eyes she stood out from a crowd. Well if you could find her, she was shorter than Levi. “Oh Rivaille, Eren was there was he not?”

Levi let his face fall. She knew him very well, and was the one to ask why Eren had stopped coming over. “ _Oui maman_ , he was. I just want to go to my room.”

“Alright. I’m heading out then, I will be back in an hour or so.”

The teen nodded as he made his way down the hallway to the large staircase that was in an even bigger room. Levi was one of the few who had a large house in Maria City. Well, it helped that Maria City was actually quite small, but the large homes were still not easy to find.

Levi trudged up the stairs, passing his father on the way up. The man had his nose in a book and his glasses pushed up into his hair, “Ah, Rivaille, have you seen my glasses?”

The teen exhaled heavily through his nose before pointing to the top of his dad’s head. The greying man grinned and pulled the glasses to their proper place. “Thank you, I would lose my own head if it was not attached, oui?”

His father continued down the stairs, flipping the pages of his book quickly. He must have been researching something. His father was big on research, especially when it came to writing his books. It was Levi’s mom that had brought all the money into the family, and then when his father became popular in France their wealth grew.

Levi merely shook his head, finding it extremely difficult to be related to his parents. He was the exact opposite of both of them. Both parents were very kind, and rarely fought with each other. The two were just constantly happy, and Levi couldn’t understand why. As he made his way down the nicely decorated hallway, he would glance at pictures of himself as a kid. In all of them, he was either stoic or scowling and not looking at the camera. There was one or two pictures with him and Eren together.

The short teen gave a soft smile at the images, he was smiling in those. Eren was, and will always be, welcomed into his home mostly because his parents loved him just as much as they loved Levi. Eren was that one friend that could just barge into your home without having to knock or let you know that they were coming over.

Now they could barely make eye contact without a fight breaking out. Levi did notice that both of them had silently agreed to never physically hit each other. Well, that’s what Levi liked to think. He was sure Eren wouldn’t hesitate to throw a punch his way, and Levi wouldn’t be able to hit him back.

Letting a palm run down his features and he twisted on his feet to walk into his room. The was a sound of air shooting around him as he collapsed on the neatly made bed. Levi allowed his face to stay in the pillows until he decided to listen to music and mope around instead of doing his homework. He was nearly done with the school work anyway. Plus he was allowed to be a hormonal teenager once and a while, and this was time for self-pity.

After flicking through his phone for music he eventually settled for the neighbourhood and stared up at the ceiling with no intention of moving. He allowed himself to recall why he and Eren had stopped being friends, and it was not a pretty image.

It was the start of freshman year in high school. Everything was going great, mostly because he made the football team and he had all his classes with his best friend. Eren was grinning excitedly next to him as the walked into the massively crowded hallway. “I can’t believe we are in high school! Maybe I can get a girlfriend this year, I’m so tired of being single.”

Eren laughed and Levi pushed his shoulder, “You idiot, you had a girlfriend over the summer but you messed that up pretty bad.”

Eren shrugged, “Hey, she was getting too clingy. Plus she really hated you and if you can’t accept my best friend then you don’t need to be in my life.”

Levi looked away as heat rose in his cheeks, and his heart seemed to slam into his chest a few times. Eren grinned at his friend and grabbed his arm to pull him through the hallway. Students were chattering and dodging anyone who got in there way. Some gave angry glares to the large groups that were forming off to the side and creating a blocked path, making the students trying to path turn into raging bulls that would shove through, not caring who got hurt.

Eren suddenly stopped and started to jump excitedly. Levi rolled his eyes and went to put the locker combination into their locker. As he opened it, he had to jump back in disgust and a scowl formed. Dust had settled at the bottom of their locker. Eren laughed and still dropped his things at the bottom. “That’s disgusting.”

"That’s high school,” Eren looked over his shoulder, “So you going for the football team?”

Levi cocked his head in thought, “Might as well. I highly doubt I will get anything big though, I’m not the tallest guy.”

The brunet sighed, “Dude, you’re built like a brick.”

The short teen smirked, “Yeah, but someone had to keep saving your ass. You attract fights like a magnet.”

Eren scowled at him before grabbing the materials he needed for class and slammed the locker. Levi gave a shit eating grin before waving as Eren left for his class. Levi smirked as he watched his best friend walk away. He loved to tease Eren, it was fun to see how flustered he would get. On top of that, he was alway cuter when flustered.

A flush went over Levi’s cheeks when he just realized he considered Eren cute. Alway denying that he may have an attraction for Eren just suddenly hit him full force. Levi looked at the ground to avoid eye contact with fellow peers as he pushed to his classroom. Eren was cute, and Levi was screwed.


	6. Chapter 6

Football tryouts went better than expected. Levi ended up being the best player, and it was realized halfway through first quarter of the school year that he would always have a high spot on the team. Things couldn’t be better for Levi, except Eren was ogling some of the new girls at school and boy did that make him jealous.

Class was over and Levi managed to catch Eren at their locker. “Hey, Eren can I talk with you?”

Those wondrous eyes flicked over to his grey ones, “Yeah sure man. It’s gotta be quick though, I am going on a date here soon.”

Levi’s heart clenched, “Oh ok.”

Eren turned around, and gave him a look to encourage Levi to speak. The shorter of the two hesitated, and suddenly Eren got a panicked look in his eye. Levi was never one to hesitate, so something bad was probably going to happen or something bad did happen. “What’s wrong Levi? You’re freaking me out.”

“I-I think you shouldn’t go on that date. Or go with any of those girls you’ve been talking to recently.”

Eren’s eyes narrowed, “Excuse me? Why not?”

Levi looked down and cursed himself for acting so stupid. This was childish, he never had a problem with saying anything before. Now his stupid feelings were getting in the way. “I just think it’s a bad idea,” Levi paused for a second, “P-plus you’ve been going out a lot lately. You look like a man whore.”

The raven haired teen regained his usually posture after the words left his lips. The air seemed to become heavier and Levi had to clench his fist to confirm that this was actually happening. The realization dawned on him and suddenly Levi just wanted to disappear. He was so stupid for saying that.

The brunet frowned and crossed his arms, “Like you are one to talk, fucking hypocrite. Mr. Popular, you have chicks hanging off you left and right.”

“Eren, listen to what you just said! I haven’t even glanced at those girls. I-I….they...I don’t...” Levi spoke with an exasperated tone, and started to realize he wasn’t going to win this argument.

“Fucking spit it out Levi!”

Levi opened his mouth but nothing came out and he searched Eren’s face as if he was looking for an answer. The truth was harder to say than he thought. The truth was Levi had developed a huge crush on Eren that disturbed even him. Eren was always full of energy despite his living conditions, and he was always so determined and those eyes...his eyes were wonderful. Why of all people did he have to start falling head over heels for his best friend? He was only a Freshman for crying out loud!

Suddenly Eren turned around to slam the locker shut, “If you don’t have the fucking guts to say what you really want to say I’m leaving. I have a date, and jealousy doesn’t suit you Levi.”

“Those girls don’t suit you,” The words came out before Levi could stop them.

The words were quiet and Eren came to a halt. The brunet turned on his heel to reveal a sarcastic expression, “Oh well Mr. Dating Expert, tell me this, who does suit me?”

Rage. That’s all Levi felt, Eren just needed to listen to him, “You really wanna know Eren? I think I suit you. Not those slutty girls who drool over you because of your bad boy complex. Did it ever click with you why I never showed interest in girls recently? Why I suddenly shifted all my attention to you? Eren I’ve wanted you to notice so bad.”

Eren stood in shock and like a switch a glare covered his features, “You sound like a selfish brat. That’s all you ever were. A selfish, spoiled brat. Now I know that this is how you react when you don’t get something you want. I might actually meet someone nice for me, and you are trying to fucking ruin it,” Eren started to back away from Levi when he noticed the balled fist, “ I don’t understand why you can’t even be happy for me, moving on from Sara and to someone who would be better for me. You can just go fuck yourself.”

With that Eren turned on his heel once more and left. Levi had a stoic expression on his face, and suddenly a wave of emotion hit him like a brick. His fist went into their shared locker and made a small dent. He fucked up. He did sound like a brat. He had got so caught up in his own emotions he didn’t consider Eren’s. Plus why was he so caught up in this bullshit? He was only fourteen, but oh how it hurt.

Levi was thankful for the empty halls as he fell to his knees and tears poured from his eyes. Eren didn’t listen, Eren won’t listen...Eren doesn’t care.

* * *

 

There was a loud thunk that was soon followed by a groan. Levi pushed himself up, and wiped at the wetness that was on his cheeks. Dreaming about the past was the worst, and the more he was around Eren the more frequent the dreams became. The teen ran his hands through his short hair and searched for his earbuds that apparently fell out while he was sleeping. It was hard to do in the dark, so he reached to turn on his lamp.

He groaned at what he saw. The teen had landed on his phone, and shattered the front of the screen. With a shaky hand he picked it up and prayed to the Apple Gods that it would still work. With a quick push on the home button the screen lit up to show a pair of black and white wings behind a shattered surface. Levi sighed and placed it gently on his night stand. “Fucking fantastic. I just got the screen replaced.”

Levi let himself fall back onto the ground, only to get back up again when he stomach growled in protest. This was going to be a long fucking night.

* * *

 

Eren still sat in shock from what he had experienced. Levi being nice? What the hell happened to him? The teen watched the other leave in disbelief, something must have been bothering Levi. Eren let his head rest on the bark, he didn’t care though. Levi was a piece of shit, selfish rich kid. Selfish rich kid was a familiar term, and Eren pondered on when he said it. With a shrug he let it go, Mikasa was probably the one to use it.

The brunet let his focus drift to Annie. Annie, she was really something else. She was beautiful no doubt, with her strong features. Though Eren had her doubts about her. Actually, ever since Freshman year he had always been iffy about dating again. He recalled canceling that date with whats-her-face, and remembered sitting at home playing video games. Yet he didn’t remember why he canceled, or why the memory made him feel like shit.

Eren just accepted that his mind didn’t want him to recall an awful memory. Really the worst memory recalled was when Levi suddenly switched out from being his locker partner to go be with Oluo from the football team. That was around when they stopped being friends, Eren sighed. His thoughts had drifted back to Levi.

A groan escaped his lips as he tugged at his hair, “Get out of my fucking head, you fucking tool.”

A woman gave him a strange look before ushering her son away from the tree. “Don’t look honey, he must being doing some kind of drug.”

Eren glared at her, but decided it was best not to flip her off. He wasn’t an idiot, he watched his temper when he was around kids…well sometimes. Eren pushed himself from the ground and noticed a book on the ground. The teen groaned, Levi had left his damn history book like the careless fool he is.

The teen stood there for a good amount of time, contemplating rather to take it to him or not. “Shit,” He heard thunder in the distance, “Fuck me, looks like I have to take the damn thing.”

Eren tugged his hood up and made his way to Levi’s house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow two chapters in one go!


	7. Chapter 7

“So where is this party Jean?”

The football player gave a grin and glanced down to Armin, “It’s at my place. My parents are out of town, so hardcore partying will ensue. There will be booze and some drugs.”

Armin stiffened slightly, that didn’t sound like the kind of party he would really enjoy. Jean seemed to have read his mind and gripped the shorter’s shoulder gently. “Don’t worry man. I’ll only be drinking a few beers. No drugs for this one, not with football season in,” Jean stuck his tongue out slightly and Armin was quick to notice it was pierced, “Damn drug tests.”

The blond gave a shaky laugh, and suddenly his shoulder felt like it was on fire. Jean laughed with him, but it sounded more genuine. The teen removed his hand to pull the keys out for his car. Armin’s shoulder suddenly felt cold, and he desperately wanted that warmth back. The teen glanced at Jean, and studied a few details about him. He noticed how his hair seemed to stick out at random angles from his helmet, and how Jean constantly poked at his newly acquired lip piercing.

The sound of the car unlocking caught Armin’s attention and he quickly jumped into the passenger side before Jean noticed how he was staring. Jean settled on the driver side and hooked his phone up to the radio, and took a few minutes to pick out a song he wanted to listen to. Armin just stared at his hands in attempt to prevent himself from gawking. It was funny that it was Eren who pointed out Armin’s obvious crush. It was funny because even he didn’t notice it, but Armin did notice Levi’s crush on Eren. It had been upsetting that Eren couldn’t see it, and now he and Levi are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Though Armin still manages to catch Levi watching Eren with a certain softness in his eyes. The look is usually there for a second, but Armin has a feeling that he has the same look when he looks at Jean.

Jean was always nice to Armin, and invited him to multiple outings. Of course Armin had always denied them, but today felt different. Today felt like he could get somewhere with Jean. He wanted to get closer to him, and this party might be a chance for that. Jean finally settled on listening to Panic! at the Disco, and started humming along as he backed out his parking spot.

“Ouch! Fuck, damn piercing.”

Armin jumped and saw Jean delicately touching his lip. He must’ve pushed too hard on it. “Hey, Jean why did you get that? Doesn’t it bother you during practice and stuff.”

Jean shrugged and ran a hand through his dual-tone hair, “Nah, plus I’ve heard lip rings make making out more fun.”

He winked at Armin and gave a laugh before turning out of the school parking lot and heading down the street towards his home. Armin blushed furiously, and his thoughts drifted to what it would be like to kiss Jean with the added lip ring. No, stop thinking about that Armin, he scolded himself. Armin didn’t need any problems walking when going to this damned party. Why did he decide to go?

After what felt like forever, Jean pulled up to his house. Teenagers were already blasting bass heavy music and were hanging of the front porch already drunk. “Uh, what time did this party start?”

“Like I know. It’s been going on for a day now. People have been coming and going.”

“Isn’t your house trashed?!”

Jean smirked, “Yeah, but I have a friend that helps clean up occasionally. Plus my folks won’t be back in a week. Though I’m calling it quits with the party tonight. I can only take so much before I snap ya know?”

Armin just nodded and followed closely behind Jean as they pushed through a crowd of overly affectionate teens. One of them was already in the others pants and Armin decided it was best to just grab Jean’s arm and let him pull him through the party house. They both found their way to the kitchen and Jean was quick to grab the beer that rested on the counter and chugged it down.

He let out a yell, which was responded to by the others around him. The teen looked down at Armin, “C’mon Armin, loosen up a bit. Plus I think my arm might fall off, you’re holding it pretty tight.”

The blond let go quickly and stepped back, blushing furiously and stumbling over his apology. Jean just waved him off and grabbed another beer, drinking this one more slowly. “Loosen up man! Take a drink,” Jean offered him the beer, but Armin put his hands up with a quick no thank you, “Suit yourself, more for me then!”

Jean took another swig, “Well, if you don’t want to drink than at least come dance with me. I’m sure we can get some,” Another sip, “..girls.”

Armin eyed Jean and took note on how the teen scrunched his nose at the word. The blond just nodded, unsure of how badly he would end up dancing and followed Jean to the main room where the music was blasting. Teens were grinding up against each other, and a few girls were trying to get the attention of some boy so they attempted to be sexy. Attempted being more kind than what Armin wanted to think, the girls were stumbling drunkenly and one ended up falling to the floor in a fit of giggles. Armin sighed and continued to follow Jean through the crowd of hormones and sweat.

‘I shouldn’t even be here,’ Armin thought as Jean started to move to the bass, ‘Mikasa and Eren would kill me if they knew what was going on here. Plus Jean isn’t even going to focus on me, there are all these girls here. I shouldn’t have come.’

Armin tried to slip away as a pretty red head moved in on Jean, and he grabbed her waist and started to move in rhythm with her. As soon as Armin turned his back and thought he was in the clear he felt a hand on his shoulder, “Hey, look I really  need to g-” Armin was flipped around to reveal a bashfully smiling Jean, “Oh. Hey I really don’t think I belong here, Jean. I should really get home.”

Jean continued to smile, “That won’t be necessary Armin, I did ask you to dance with me.”

Armin blushed, “I c-can’t dance.”

Jean cocked his head and started to drag him back into the crowd, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll show you what to do.”

Armin felt the heat spread to the tip of his ears, “N-no Jean please.” ‘You have to be drunk there is no way you would do this sober.’

Jean just shook his head and gave a laugh, “Armin just one song and we can leave to a quieter part of the house, yeah?”

The taller teen was suddenly closer and Armin had to look down. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Jean suddenly had his hands on Armin as a slower song began to play and some of the people in the room were settling down. Jean moved Armin’s hands to rest on his shoulders as he rested his hands on Armin’s waist. The blond still couldn’t look up, he was in disbelief. A deep chuckle caused him to look up, and Jean took the opportunity to catch Armin’s lips in a quick, but sweet kiss. Armin froze and stared in disbelief, his mouth hung open and Jean continued to chuckle. There was a light flush on his features, “Dude I’m not blind, I’ve seen the way you look at me. It’s cool though,” Jean leaned closer to Armin’s ear, “Feelings mutual.”

“But earlier you sai-”

“Sh, I didn’t really mean it. Plus you just look so cute flustered,” Jean pulled away to look Armin in the eye, “Oh and I’m not drunk if you're wondering. I’ve only had two beers.”

Jean gave a wink and Armin just continued to dance with him in disbelief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so Armin and Jean chapter. Don't worry I'll try to get the Levi/Eren chapter out for those who wanted it either tonight or sometime tomorrow.


	8. Chapter 8

There was thunder rumbling in the distance, and suddenly a waterproof jacket would have been more preferable. The flimsy black jacket Eren was adorning now was flapping in the wind as it picked up speed and he shivered tried to hold the book under his chin as he pulled the jacket closed and attempted to zip it back up. The book started to slip from his grip but the jacket was zipped up fast enough for him to catch it. Funny how it was all blue skies and sunshine a few moments ago. Maybe it would have been best for him to watch the news before departing in his lighter clothing.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket and he flipped it open to see that Mikasa had texted him about getting home soon. He quickly responded and pushed the device into his pocket and hoped he would make it home on time before it was pouring. The last thing he needed was his phone being ruined by some rain storm the seemingly came out of no where.

The sound of a soft pittering made Eren speed up to a jog. Suddenly Levi’s house seemed like a more welcoming place from this rain. He still didn’t know why he felt obligated to bring Levi his history book. Maybe it was because he actually wanted to get an A for once, but Eren highly doubted that. Honestly he felt like owed Levi a favour since the teen had let Eren have the spot in the park. It was unexpectedly kind of him. The least Eren could do in return was make sure his books didn’t get ruined.

A loud boom caused Eren to jump and sprint to the large home in the distance. The rain started to pour heavily and Eren started to bang on the door quickly. It felt like forever before the door was actually opened by Levi’s father. The man gave a large smile and pulled Eren in to an unexpected hug. Eren grunted, “Good to...see you too...sir...please let me go.”

The man let him go, “Sorry Eren, it has just been so long. Please come in from the rain.”

Eren only went in to the doorway before handing the book over, “Levi left this at the park, that’s the only reason I’m here. I really gotta get going, sir. My sister will be worried.”

Levi’s father smiled, “ _Non, non_ Eren. You must stay, this storm is too bad for you to head home. Please have some dinner. The news said it will lighten up in an hour. Please I insist.”

Eren hesitated and glanced out the window beside the front door. It was pouring so hard it was nearly impossible to see the street. Eren became conflicted. Though he felt welcome by Levi’s father, Levi wouldn’t be too happy to see him. There was another buzz in his pocket and he pulled out his phone. This time it was Annie,

_Hey, where are you? I have the car from Mikasa, I can pick you up and bring you home._

Eren looked at the man before him, “Excuse me for a second, I have to text my friend really fast.”

He simply nodded and waited for Eren patiently.

_Levi’s house_

_What?! Why are you there? I’m on my way._

_I had to return his book. please be careful, its hard to see out there._

“Actually as much as I would like to stay, my friend is coming to get me.”

“Aw, well maybe next time Eren. I miss having you around, and Levi does too.”

Eren blinked, that didn’t sound right. He must have misheard him from the thundering rain. There was no way Levi missed having him around. “I’m sorry sir, but Levi can’t miss having me around. He blatantly hates me.”

The dark haired man smirked and adjusted his glasses, “Levi cannot bring himself to hate you Eren. I remembered that day two years ago. My son came home broken hearted and in tears. You know he still has quite the cr-”

“What are you doing here?”

Levi was standing in the archway behind his dad, his hair was disheveled and his voice cracked slightly. It was obvious he had just woke up from a nap. Levi rubbed at his eyes before restating his question, “Eren what are you doing here?”

“Oh Levi, Eren was just returning your book. You were careless enough to leave it at the park.”

Eren released the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He silently thanked the man as the book was handed to Levi. There was a beep outside the house and Eren took that as his cue to leave. “Oh, well..thanks I guess.”

The thanks was barely heard over Eren shouting his goodbyes as he took of to get in the car with Annie. Annie gave him a worried look, “You guys didn’t fight did you?”

“No,” Eren had a distracted look, trying to think of what Levi’s dad was saying earlier, “No I’m fine. I just want to go home.”

Sunday seemed to fly by and sure enough Monday arrived. Eren had been distracted through most of the day, and then history class came. Eren sat awkwardly with Levi. The dark haired teen was working in silence with the occasional sound of him flipping a page in the history book Eren had returned to him. “Are you going to do nothing? I have done almost everything and you are just sitting on your ass.”

“Hey that’s the plan. I returned your book you should be more grateful.”

Levi put his pen down and glared up Eren, “You piece of shit, don’t come to my house ever again. You aren’t welcomed there dumb ass.”

Eren scowled back, “Well your parents seem to miss me. Maybe I should start showing up more often just to spend time with them. Plus your dad seems to think you want me there anyway, so you’re the dumb ass, dumb ass.”

That got the teen to freeze. Levi’s steely grey eyes went wide for a moment and his mouth was slightly ajar. Eren could see how fast Levi was thinking as he watched those widened eyes search the room in a panic before landing on Eren once more. The fierceness had returned, and Levi’s expression changed to a neutral one. Silence rested over the combined desk as Levi proceeded to pretend that Eren had said nothing. “Vous n'avez aucune idée.”

The words were soft, but certainly heard. Eren frowned, “Y’know I don’t speak French, so you wanna say that again in English tough guy?”

Levi flicked a bored gaze at him, and tapped his pen against the table, “Do some fucking work or I will kick your ass into next week.”

Eren sighed and rolled his eyes and proceeded to do nothing as per usual. When class finally got out he went to meet Annie at her locker. The two had decided they would try to be more like a couple, and see if they would continue to date even after homecoming. Eren gave Annie a soft smile, and gave her hug. She returned it awkwardly but gave him one of her rare smiles. Eren though she looked prettier when she smiled, but she didn’t cause his heart to skip a beat.

The brunet suddenly became aware that maybe he wouldn’t be able to date Annie after homecoming. He frowned slightly when she turned her back to him. Ever since Freshman year he had a difficult time staying in a relationship with any girl. It was weird, but he always had an overwhelming sense of guilt come over him, and he had no idea why. He smiled again when Annie turned around, “You have the prettiest eyes Eren, I’m jealous.”

She touched his cheek lightly and ran her thumb under his eye, “Thanks Annie, but I think your eyes surpass mine by a long shot.”

Annie took her hand off his cheek to cover her face as a blush danced across her features, Eren pulled her hands off and gave a laugh, “You would’ve known you were so easily flustered.”

The blonde scowled, “Shut up,” she soon laughed to, “Oh look it Armin.”

Eren grabbed her hand and turned around to see his best friend looking for someone. “Oh yeah, let’s go talk to him.”

Before he stepped forward he watched as Jean went up to Armin, and the smaller of the two blushed. Jean grinned and dipped down to give him a quick kiss before walking with him to leave the school. Eren was shocked, Armin never texted him about Jean and him becoming a thing. “God damnit Armin. Well he better not expect me to let horseface in my house.”

Annie started to pull Eren along this time, “The only reason you don’t like him is because he hit on your sister in the seventh grade. Move on Eren.”

Eren stuck his tongue out at the shorter girl, “No thanks. Armin has some explaining to do that’s for sure.”

Annie shook her head and sighed, “Just shut up and walk me home like the good boyfriend you are.”

The brunet sighed in defeat and walked with Annie down the hall with a small pout on his face. He would glance at her and give her puppy dog eyes, and that would illicit a small smile from her before she would push his face away. Eren gave another laugh, but went silent quickly when they walked out into parking lot hand in hand. The teen looked around when he felt someone staring at them, and sure enough he found Levi glaring at him. Eren gave him a confused look but the raven haired teen looked away, shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to his car.

Eren merely shrugged it off and continued walking with Annie. He tried to keep a lively conversation with her as they went to her home, but his thoughts kept drifting back to the grumpy person he used to call best friend. “Hey, did you want to hang for a little bit?”

“Ah, sorry Annie but I should really get home. I need to have a much needed conversation with Armin.”

Annie chuckled, “Alright, just don’t go too hard on him.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll make sure he tells me every detail. I’ll text you later, okay?”

Annie nodded and waved as Eren left the rundown house and made his way to his own small home. Armin was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told yall I would get up tonight :)


	9. Chapter 9

The second Eren stepped into his shitty rundown home he pulled out his equally crap flip phone and hit speed dial for Armin. The phone gave a few quick rings as Eren tossed his backpack on the couch and then flung himself on the worn out piece of furniture. There was a sound from the kitchen, and Eren returned Mikasa’s greeting. The brunet gave a sigh as he waited for what seemed like forever for his best friend to answer his phone.

The line finally stopped ringing and there was the sound of shuffling, and then Armin finally spoke, “Hello?” 

He sounded out of breath and there was the sound of a chair scraping against the aluminum floor that Eren was pretty sure in his kitchen. “Hey Armin.”

Armin cleared his throat before greeting Eren with a more cheerful tone than when he answered. “So whatcha calling for?”

Eren frowned, and hoped that Armin could sense it telepathically. “Well I saw you and horseface in the hallway. Care to explain? I thought I was your best friend, why didn’t you text or call me dude?” 

There was silence on the other line, as if Armin was contemplating how he was going to word this to Eren. “Well...when I went to that party on Friday, Jean and I kinda danced together. He kissed me and told me how he returned my feelings. Apparently I had been completely obvious about it the whole time.”

Armin laughed, and Eren snorted, “Well yeah, it was totally obvious you had a crush on him. It’s the only reason you went to the games. Plus you would stare at his ass a lot.”

“I would not! Eren you little bitch,” Armin chuckled lightly, his breath fully regained, “Besides, you can barely tell when someone has a crush on you. I mean look at Annie, she had been watching you for a few weeks and finally made a move. Oh Mikasa filled me in on that you hypocrite.”

“Wait Mikasa knew about you and Jean? Hold on,” Eren moved his phone away from his ear and lifted his torso to peer into the kitchen where Mikasa was sitting and working on homework, “Yo, did you know about Jean and Armin?”

Mikasa nodded and resumed her work. Eren growled lightly into the phone, “You should’ve told me right away Armin. Oh speaking of which, just because you're dating the dickhead doesn’t mean he can come over with the rest of the gang all willy-nilly.”

“Willy-nilly?”

“Shut the fuck up, my point is made.”

There was a chuckle on the other end of the line. The two began to talk about school for a little bit, and it didn’t take long for Eren to start ranting about his history class, “Oh tell me about you going to Levi’s. I heard about it but I didn’t get the full thing.”

Eren groaned as he recalled what happened, he shifted the phone to his other ear, “Yeah and his dad was about to say something but Levi came in. He looked like shit, like it was obvious he just woke up. Who knew Mr. Workaholic even slept.”

“Eren,” Armin scolded, “You should really try to be nicer to Levi.”

The brunet shot up from the couch at the words, his eyes going wide, “Why the fuck should I? I already returned the nice favour by giving him his book back. That’s the only ‘nice’ action he will get from me.”

There was a sigh and then silence. Eren sat there for moment thinking Armin had lost connection. He was about to ask Armin if he was still there but the blond already started to speak. “Eren, he really doesn’t hate you as much as you think he does...no don’t try to interrupt me, listen.”

Eren closed his mouth and he could hear Armin shift in the background, “Ok, you probably aren’t going to believe me. Levi actually has a huge crush on you, Eren. He has for a long time, that’s what his dad was trying to tell you, I’m sure of it.”

The teen was silent and in shock. He didn’t believe him, not one word. Maybe Levi wanted to crush him which made more sense than having a crush on him.. What Armin was saying sounded ridiculous, “Armin, maybe he wants to crush me. Plus that isn’t a reason to be nice to him. He’s a complete dick bag.”

Armin groaned, “Eren just at least do me the favour of paying closer attention to him this week. Try to watch what he actually does for you. Haven’t realized how you haven’t had anyone picking on you at all? That’s Levi. Jean was actually telling me about how he pretty much threatened to kick everyone’s ass if they even tried to lay a finger on you.”

Eren blinked, that would explain the lack of fights with that shitty horseface. He had noticed that as his high school career advanced there had been a lack of physical fights. Of course he still had his verbal fights but that was completely different from the physical thing. Eren’s grip tightened on the phone, his ears heating up and suddenly he couldn’t think of anything to say. After all this time Levi was still protecting him, and trying to keep Eren’s life as lawsuit free as possible.

Armin cleared his throat and pulled Eren back into reality, “Eren, will you at least do that?” 

“Do what?”

A sigh was heard, “Pay attention to Levi.”

Running a hand through his shaggy hair, Eren sighed his answer out, “Sure sure. Hey do you think you can tell me what happened between Levi and I? It seems I blocked it from memory or some shit.”

Mikasa slammed a book down on the counter, making Eren jump and he glanced back to look at her. There was darkness over her features and suddenly her movements became more animated and lively than before. Eren shrugged it off. There was another moment of silence on the line, “No. You have to ask Le-” 

“I fucking tried that Armin, all he did was get mad,” Eren pushed off the couch and went to his room to get some privacy, “He got so fucking mad. I don’t know what to do.”

“Eren, I’m sure if you start being nicer to Levi he will remind you. Then you will understand why he got so upset.” 

A groan escaped the brunet’s lips as he allowed himself to land on his messy bed, “I guess I can _try_ to do that. It’s gonna be hard. Well, I’ll let you go Armin, I got some homework to not do.”

There was a laugh that was followed by a farewell and soon Eren was left with just his thoughts. He covered his face with his hands and sighed heavily. This was going to be quiet the week. He agreed to watching Levi closely and he had feeling that it wasn’t going to end well. Levi was always quick to pick up on when others were watching him. It was like the constipated shortie was constantly paranoid. Eren smirked, that was probably right. He always remembered being on guard when they were younger. It had been difficult to become his friend, especially when he seemed to only speak french at the time.

The teen frowned, not wanting to recall any happy times with Levi. He recalled how they rarely fought, and how their one big fight, well if that’s what happened, tore them apart in no time. As he rolled to his side, Eren tried to plan on how he was going to fulfil his promise to Armin. He didn’t know Levi’s schedule, but he did have the first hour and last hour with Levi. That was when he was going to have to start paying attention, which was easier said than done.

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

The body underneath him shuddered and released a moan before menstruations along the neck were continued. The kisses were long and ended with a hard nip at the skin; each bite would reward him with another moan. Those moans would sound like angels singing in his ears and would send more blood rushing down in his pants. Suddenly clothes became too constricting. He stripped the body below him to reveal amazingly toned muscle, and that made a groan of pleasure leave his mouth as he ran his hands along them. The person below him gave a smirk before pulling the other into a tongue filled kiss. There was a fight for dominance until both needed breath. He kissed along the neck once more, biting down harder and making sure to leave a mark. This time a name escaped lips, "Eren."

Eren shot out of bed in a sweat, not remembering when he fell asleep. He glanced at the clock, and it read that it was five in the afternoon. He sighed running his hand to try and air out his matted hair. Who was that below him? Why was it a guy? He only showed interest in women, well at least he was pretty sure he did. Recently Eren noticed himself losing interest in the opposite sex, but Annie was a different story. He did have some interest in her. She was pretty, smart, and funny. Why wouldn't he want to date her?  _'That was definitely a guy. It's normal to have those kind of dreams, right? I mean I have Annie, I don't need to be having dreams about some dude that sounded really familiar…'_ Eren drifted off into his thoughts as he pushed himself up from the bed and made his way down the short hallway down to the bathroom.

Mikasa was resting on the couch with a book in hand, and she looked up to give Eren a small greeting before he disappeared. With a flick of his wrist the lights came on, and stung at his eyes. Eren gave a small groan as his eyes adjusted, and he then stripped himself of his sweaty clothes and hopped into the warming up shower. This was really going to be a long week now. Maybe if he just focused on homecoming he wouldn't have to worry so much about what kind of dreams he is having. One thing was for sure, he couldn't let anyone know about it.

It seemed first hour was going to be the longest part of the day. Sitting next to Levi everyday had suddenly become more difficult. Eren did he best not to seem suspicious as he stole glances at his target. He tried to make a game out of this little "task" Armin had asked of him. Levi didn't seem to even glance in his general direction. Eren frowned and crossed his arms and tried to focus on the teacher for once. Levi's scratching of notes could be heard, and it was getting annoying. Eren glanced over to now see Levi twirling the pen as the teacher spoke and wrote on the whiteboard. Another pointless attempt to see what Armin was talking about. Eren now chose to stare at his desk, and drawing pictures in his notebook. He never really took notes in his English class; he really didn't see a point. Then there was the sound of a pen dropping, and Eren felt something hit his feet.

The brunet glanced to see that Levi's pen had slipped from his grasp and was now resting by his foot. Eren kicked it out of Levi's reach and he turned his head to see him glaring daggers. It was Eren's turn to ignore Levi. In order to seem more distracted, Eren actually wrote down a word or two from notes, "Eren."

He froze. That sounded extremely familiar, it sounded like the voice in the dream. Eren didn't move a muscle and Levi was about to get up to grab the pen. That was when Eren moved to pick it up, remembering that Armin also asked him to be nicer to Levi, and handed that shorter teen the black pen. The grey eyed teen looked shock but took it from Eren, carefully avoiding hand contact. "Uh, thanks I guess."

That was the second time Eren had been thanked by his so-called rival. Those two thanks happened in such a short time of each other too. Eren frowned; it felt strange to be nice to Levi again. It was definitely something he wasn't going to get used to. "Alright, class. We are going to do a quick partner assignment; you can pick your own partners. Get together and I will tell you what we will be doing."

Chatter quickly filled the room and the sound of desk hitting each other as friends partnered up together, and laughter was heard from some parts of the room. Eren was about to leave to go partner with his usual go to guy Reiner, but he was already with the new guy Bertlhodlt or something like that. "Hey, idiot. You want to be partners?"

Eren turned back around to look at Levi like he was that idiot, "It's not like we really have much of choice, fucker. I would hate to be paired with someone I can't tolerate for more than a second."

"So you can tolerate me for more than second?"

Levi glowered at him as gave an easy tug at Eren's desk to pull him over, "Honestly, I'm more interested in why you have been watching me for the past twenty-five minutes. So yes, I can tolerate you for more than a second."

The brunet tried his best to look confused, "Watching you? Dude, you're just being paranoid. You do know you are right by the window right? I actually like looking outside believe or not."

Levi raised a thin brow, before going to his default expression, "Whatever you say, brat."

"Are you incapable of saying my name like a normal person? You said it earlier, why can't you say it now?"

There was flash of emotion that went through those icy grey eyes, and Eren couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Maybe he struck something, and maybe that something was going to help him get answers. There was something muttered by Levi but it was blocked by the teacher explaining the assignment. Write a Puritan based poem, and have some sort of picture to go with it. Eren grinned, he could do the drawing. He was actually decent at art, and Levi was the best writer. So it seemed them partnering up hadn't been that bad of an idea. "I guess us being partners wasn't that bad of an idea."

The raven haired teen voiced the brunets thoughts. Eren nodded before he looked at Levi, actually ready to participate with the class today. "So what is the poem going to be based on? I need a basic understanding so I can draw this thing out."

The two discussed it quickly, and then resumed to work. Eren would glance at the poem from time to time to help him with the picture, and he would be at awe from Levi's fancy handwriting. All the letters would seamlessly loop together, and it was beautiful. Eren knew he would never be able to write like that. His handwriting was barely legible, but he could draw well so he really didn't seem to care much about that. "Hey Levi?"

There was a hum in response, "What did you say earlier? I couldn't hear you over the project being explained. Plus you mumbled."

Levi paused for a minute, glancing up at Eren through his long lashes. "I said sorry."

Eren froze, unable to react. Levi apologizing to him was the last thing he thought he would hear in a long time. Though he still didn't connect this with what Armin had said the day before. Maybe he was just apologizing for...for...Eren couldn't think of anything. He only nodded and resumed his drawing. He noticed that those grey eyes watched him closely for a few moments longer than necessary before resuming his work.

That was the first A he got in English in a long time.

History suddenly seemed less tense. From the friendlier interaction earlier in the day, Levi seemed to be less reluctant to work with Eren. "How much work have you gotten done, Eren? I don't want to do all of this damned project."

The brunet dropped his backpack down and sat in his seat. The class was still filtering in, "Hmm, I have completed napping and more napping."

Levi sighed through his nose, "Of course. Here," The teen pulled out a small book that had Napoleon on the cover and passed it to Eren. Their fingers brushed, "This should at least allow you to do something. We still need a conclusion and a few more facts. Then we need to through a poster together. I can get everything but we will need to see up a date to meet up to make it. Today is the last day we get to work on everything in class."

Eren sneered and put his feet up on the desk, but the sneer was quickly replaced with a smirk, "You said my name."

"Yeah, I did."

The brunet took note of that and noticed that Levi had managed to start rambling for short time. He usually only did that when he felt comfortable enough around the person. Eren started to feel worry go through his system. Levi seemed to already be comfortable around Eren, and now the teen wasn't so sure Levi actually disliked him as much as he thought.

When class got out, Levi lingered to put everything away in his backpack. He flipped through some papers to double check they were the correct ones as he neatly filed them away in a white binder. Eren tossed the book Levi handed to him into his bag and was getting ready to leave before a voice stopped him. He almost had Mr. Smith smack into him, but the teacher made his way around him with a quick apology. "What?"

Levi stared at him, "I just wanted to ask you a quick question."

Eren rolled his eyes and turned to face him, "Yeah?"

The short teen opened his mouth, and Eren suddenly felt a hand in his. He glanced over to see Annie looking up at him with a small smile. She pulled him down to give him a quick peck, and Eren greeted her before returning his attention to Levi. Levi had his backpack on and wasn't looking at him anymore. "What were you going to ask me?"

"Nothing," Levi pushed passed him and seemed to be in more of hurry than earlier, "It was nothing."

The football player had left the room and Eren stood with perplexed expression. "Well that was weird."

Annie voiced his thoughts. Eren nodded his head in agreement. Weird was on way to word it, but to Eren it seemed more suspicious if anything. He shrugged the idea off, and pulled Annie's hand as he took the lead of going out into the crowded hallway. Each day more and more teens got excited about the upcoming homecoming dance. Eren wasn't exactly thrilled, content was a better word to describe the feeling he had. He couldn't dance well, and was going to have to warn Annie to watch her feet. He glanced down at the said blonde. She seemed to be deep and thought most likely thinking of her classes or what she was going to do for homecoming.

It was funny how a sense of guilt flooded through him, and Eren knew exactly why. He tried to push the feeling down as the two reached his locker. Armin was there, and so was Jean. The two were chatting and there was an occasional chuckle. Eren cleared his throat and Jean threw Eren a glare, "The fuck you want Jaeger?"

"Oh just to get into my locker, since you are in front of it horseface."

Jean's face went red, "You asshole!"

"I think horses are cute."

It was quiet but everyone heard it and glanced at Armin. Eren laughed, Annie chuckled and Jean blushed madly. "I-I'll see you outside Armin."

Jean left with his head in his hands. "You really pick 'em Armin."

Armin frowned, "You're one to talk. I remember a certain Ti-"

"Wow look at the time Annie, we should really get going."

Eren quickly tugged Annie along with him, refusing to go over a list of his past girlfriends. That was something he learned not to do in front of his current girlfriend. Of course he was sure Annie was well aware of his past dating history, but he liked to think he cooled down as the years went by. Annie gave him a glare, knowing exactly where Armin was heading. Eren threw her an apologetic smile, and in the process of not paying attention he ended up slamming into someone's back. That someone just happened to be one of the angrier people he knew.

Levi turned around, and the expression on his face made Eren jump. Annie matched the look with equal intensity. Levi glowered at her before glancing Eren, his expression easing slightly, "Watch where you are going, dork. Oh, actually I recalled that question I was going to ask you."

The brunet didn't realize Levi had forgotten, and suddenly Annie was gripping his hand tighter than before. Eren clicked his tongue at her, "Go ahead and ask."

Levi cleared his throat and shifted his weight to one foot as he crossed his arms across his chest. He cocked his head slightly, "I was wondering if you wanted to get together after my practice and knock this project out of the way. It's due on Friday."

"Dude, I just got that book from you, there is no way I can get anything completely done tonight."

Levi sighed and ran a hand through his undercut, "I know, but I'll be there to help you out."

Eren stiffened slightly at the sudden friendliness, this was speeding along at too fast of a pace. He was actually unsure of how to react, his mouth hung open slightly but before he could give an answer, Annie gave one for him, "He's busy this afternoon."

"I am? Ow! That fucking hurt," Eren hissed through his teeth as the blonde hit him with her sharp elbow. "Well apparently I'm busy, sorry Levi. Maybe tomorrow after school?"

Levi gave him a suspicious look, "Sure. We can just go straight to my house so don't just shoot off after history, okay?"

"Yeah, dude, whatever you say," Eren gave a wave as Annie quickly pulled him away. There was a strange feeling going throughout his whole body. That whole encounter lacked the usual name calling and it was all friendly. Something that was usually lacking in their time together. "I guess being nice to him earlier lightened him up a bit."

Annie tugged at Eren's sleeve, "What was that? Since when were you guys all buddy buddy? I thought you hated each other."

Eren held his hands up in defense, "I'm just doing what Armin asked me to do. What's with you?"

Annie's eyes widened slightly, "Sorry, sorry. I don't know, I just got really jealous for a second."

The brunet raised a brow, they haven't even been dating for a week and she was already reacting like this. Of course Eren was positive he was either her second or third boyfriend in a long ass time. It was understandable she would have her guard up. ' _Especially if she thinks Levi has a crush on me like Armin does, I would probably get jealous too.'_

He smiled softly at Annie and took her hand, "Everything's good. I'm a little confused about the whole thing myself, to be completely honest. I thought we were suppose to hate each other too, but it seems Levi is perfectly content with falling back into our old friendship. I guess Armin was right about one thing."

Annie gave him a curious glance, "What would that be?"

"Levi doesn't hate me as much as I think he does."


	11. Chapter 11

Happiness, joy, excitement. Levi felt all of these things when his class suddenly became bearable when he made the consecutive decision to pair up with Eren. The teen was actually nice to him for once, and that was all he needed to realize Eren might be trying to be friends again. Maybe this time around wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe this time he had a chance.

 

Of course that feeling was destroyed when school was out. Annie had popped out of seemingly no where and made it clear that Eren was with her. Levi got that familiar feeling of his heart clenching, but it was quickly replaced with jealousy. He didn’t really like Annie. She was opinionated and seemed to be a bit rude and controlling. Of course Levi never really took the time to get to know her. That was when he decided against asking Eren to come over tonight. There was no point of doing that with her there, and he was positive Eren would say no. Plus, according to the social norms of their current situation, they were suppose to hate each other.

 

Levi shoved past and went to his locker, only to find Oluo hanging around. Levi sneered, “What do you want poser?”

 

Oluo frowned, “You’re so mean, but I know you actually enjoy my company,” the senior smirked, and shifted his position, “Say have you seen Petra? Oh and is she going to homecoming with anyone?”

 

The shorter teen opened his locker and started to neatly stack his books. He contemplated if he should fuck around with the senior’s head or just tell him the truth. For some unknown reason, dancing around the topic seemed so much more fun, “I wonder who Gunter is going with.”

 

The words came out nonchalantly and disregarded the question asked. Oluo scowled, his already frowning face became more creased, “Hey just answer my question.”  


Levi looked up innocently with his eyes bored, “You asked a question?”

 

The older teen’s nostrils flared as a glare was casted in Levi’s direction. Oluo seemed to be ranting about something but Levi didn’t seem to hear him. He was distracted by what he saw just a few feet down the hall. He noticed Eren’s tanned skin, his shaggy brown hair, and his wondrous eyes. Those eyes were currently sparkling as a smiled showed of his white teeth. Levi couldn’t help but feel a boost of confidence shoot through him, and he pushed by Oluo just as the ranting senior bit his tongue. Someone called his name but he ignored it, he needed to talk to Eren. Something, no someone, was pulling him away. He was about to yell at them when he noticed it was Petra. The girl smiled at him, and he gave her a bored look. He just hoped Eren didn’t leave before he got the chance to talk to him.

 

“Yes, Petra?”

 

The girl played with her fingers, “Hey are you going to homecoming with anybody? Cos I know someone who really wants to go with you.”

Levi looked at her with confusion splayed across his features, _‘Why would she ask that? She knows I don’t like going to dances,’_ Levi sighed, and crossed his arms, “No I’m not. Plus I don’t plan on attending such a ridiculous event.”

 

Petra opened her mouth to make an ‘o’ and then looked away, her eyes sparkling as if she was on the verge of tears. Levi rubbed his temples and sighed through his nose, “Look, Petra I’m sure there is someone who wants to go with you. Specifically Oluo.”

 

The auburn looked up at him with slight disgust, “No way! He is such a weirdo, and he tries to act exactly like you.”

 

“Give him a chance Petra, cause I’m sure as hell not going to a dance because you didn’t look at all your options. He really has it bad for you too. Just try talking to him. He isn’t a complete idiot, it’s just when you are around to be honest.”

 

Petra blushed at the statement, “Really?”

 

Levi scowled and tried to usher her away, “Yes, now I have to talk to someone before they leave so fuck off would ya?”

 

The cheerleader stuck her tongue out at him before carefully making her way to Oluo. Oluo blushed and looked around in confusion. Levi was about to turn around when he suddenly felt someone bump into his back. The teen tensed up and turned on his heel, ready to rip the idiot a new asshole. All that went away when he saw it was Eren who bumped into him. Suddenly he didn’t feel the need to be mad. He felt that this was his opportunity to get Eren back in his life, and felt that the hatred game could be put to an end.

 

Asking Eren to come over was seemingly the most terrifying thing ever. Levi wasn’t sure he could handle getting an estranged look or a laugh to ridicule him. _‘Result may vary due to pesky blonde girlfriends,’_ Levi thought to himself as Annie claimed Eren was, in fact, busy tonight. That didn’t stop Eren from trying to compromise. Levi had to fight a smile that was threatening to show, he attempted to cover it, “Sure. We can just go straight to my house so don’t just shoot off after history, okay?”

 

“Yeah, dude, whatever you say,” Eren gave a wave as Annie quickly pulled him away. Levi grinned when Eren’s back was turned. Giddy, that was the one word to describe how he felt right now. Suddenly tomorrow seemed like an eternity away. He turned on his heel, half bouncing to leave the school. He still felt that stupid grin plastered on his face, but Levi didn’t care who noticed at the moment. His head was in the clouds. The only thing to bring him back down to Earth was the sound of someone clearing their throat. Levi’s smile snapped off as he looked Gunter straight in the eyes, daring him to say something.

 

“I see you still haven’t got over Eren like you said you did,” The brunet knew him well. Gunter was his go to guy after his fallout with Eren. Gunter was really the only one who knew about Levi’s sexuality and it didn’t bother the chill teen one bit. The brunet seemed to find out things at some point anyway, he was just that kind of guy.

 

Levi sneered and shoved past him, “Yeah, what about it?”

 

“Oh nothing,” he smiled at the shorter teen, “It’s just so adorable to see such a threatening guy smile his ass off about some boy, a _taken_ boy might I add.”

 

Suddenly the sound of tweeting birds became obnoxious, and his car became the only safe haven, “I am fully aware of his relationship status, Gunter. I have a feeling Annie won’t last long anyway.”

 

Gunter raised a brow and stepped in front of Levi, “What is that supposed to fucking mean, dude? You aren’t going to sabotage that relationship are you?”

 

The shorter of the two scowled, “Who the fuck do you think I am? Hell no, I just feel like things are about to turn in my favour. He doesn’t really look at her the same way she looks at him. Somethings up with Eren, and I want to find out. Well, at least try to find out before Annie.”

 

The other stared at him suspiciously, “Oh really now? What makes you think Eren will talk to you about his personal life in no time? Levi,” Gunter ignored the disgusted glare that he received when he placed his hand on Levi’s shoulder, “I’m just being realistic. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

 

Levi flicked the hand off him like a fly, “I know. Trust me Gunter, I know what I’m doing. Now please excuse me I must go scrub my room clean for tomorrow.”

 

Gunter watched as Levi pushed by, a brow raised and small smirk played on his lips, “What’s tomorrow?”

 

Levi looked over his shoulder, a rare smile barely visible, “He’s coming over tomorrow.”

 

After rushing home like there was going to be no tomorrow, Levi burst through the kitchen door that lead to the garage. His mother was standing in the doorway, her thinly plucked eyebrows arching in confusion. Levi huffed breath, “Eren is coming over tomorrow after school.”

 

A smile graced her features, “Oh you have finally made up with him, I will make sure the kitchen and living room are spot-”

 

“ _Pas de maman,_ Eren and I didn’t finally make up. We are just working on our project for history class,” Levi let out a calm breath before grabbing a recently cleaned apple off the the kitchen island. “Thank you for cleaning though. You are the only one that get it just like I like it. Those maids need some help.”

 

He scoffed as he bit in to the apple, his mother clucked her tongue at him for speaking poorly of their maids. “You know Angela does her best to make sure everything is to your standards, _Rivaille._ ”

 

Levi didn’t respond. Angela was a perky old woman who was there head maid. It was unclear what her ethnicity was and she had some thick accent that Levi couldn’t pinpoint. Yet the woman was cherished by the Ackerman household. Simply because she spoke fluent French, and his poor mother who struggled with English could easily communicate with her. Angela did make excellent snickerdoodles though, Levi would give her that.

 

The teenager shrugged before heading off to his room. He started to make a mental checklist before his phone buzzed violently in his pocket. Levi’s brows creased slightly at the nuisance that was his shitty iPhone and pulled the cracked device out to read the name that flashed on his screen. Eren had texted him.

 

Levi’s fingers moved rapidly as he stopped in mid step, almost causing Angela to run into him. She swore at him in French before moving about her business. The teen rolled his eyes and read the text.

 

_Sorry about Annie. She wanted me to help her see which dress fits her best for homecoming. Girls am I right? Lol_

 

Levi sighed through his nose, he was an idiot. His fingers danced across the screen.

 

_You still have my number?_

 

He waited. Time seemed to stand still.

 

_Yeah. I don’t usually clear my contacts list too often. Lucky you. I’m gonna go now before you think I am actually attempting to be kind to you more than once._

 

Levi frowned at the statement, it seemed so out of place compared to what happened today. He quickly brushed off the feeling. It didn’t matter because Eren was actually talking to him. It was a great day to be Levi.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for any weird spacing, im too tired to go fix it.  
> i usually give up on fanfics at this point but i want to keep this one going. i struggled through a huge writer's block on this chapter, but fret not the next chapter won't be as difficult for me. sorry if anything seems off or unneeded.

Mikasa was minding her own business when she heard the front door open to her small home. She looked up from her math homework to see Annie walk in with Eren in tow. The raven haired teen smiled up at them, and took note of the dress bag in Annie’s hand. “Did you guys walk all the way to the store and back?”

 

Annie shook her head, “Petra gave us a ride, but she had to leave. Apparently there is some sort of bonding night for the cheer squad. I’ll have to show you the dress I picked out.”

Mikasa nodded excitedly, “I’m sure it’s beautiful, and I’m sure that one,” she motioned to Eren, “Was loads of help.”

 

Eren snorted, “Of course I was,” he snapped his fingers and made a duck face, “I’m an excellent dress shopper. Only the finest for my gal pals.”

 

The teen laughed at his own joke, and Annie punched him in the shoulder, “He was one hundred percent useless. Got distracted by every little thing. Oh but that’s not the only reason I’m here Mikasa.”

 

Eren’s sister quirked a quick brow, curious to what they were talking about, “Oh?”

 

“Eren is going to Levi’s tomorrow. Again.”

 

Mikasa tensed up and frowned over at her brother, she wanted to smack him, to remind him the trouble Levi had caused for Eren their Freshman year. She never approved of Levi in the first place, the teen seemed to be constantly plotting something. “No. I won’t let you go.”

 

Eren scowled at Annie, then at Mikasa. “We are working on our history project. It is due this Friday, and shit needs to be completed. Big fucking deal that I’ll be going to his place, it’s not like we are gonna do anything horribly wrong. Plus I don’t think...well Armin thinks Levi doesn’t hate me as much as we think he does.”

 

Annie stiffened and Mikasa closed her math book calmly. Both girls were perfectly aware of what Levi thought of Eren. To be clear, Mikasa knew from the way Levi started to act near the end of middle school and the beginning of high school. She is always observant when it came to Eren, and Annie had discussed it with her when she decided to go to homecoming with Eren. Annie was worried that Levi might try to sabotage or attempt to get Eren prevented from attending the dance. Though Mikasa knew Levi wouldn’t do that to Eren, he was an asshole but he did have some dignity.

 

Annie let go of Eren to go sit with Mikasa on the couch, and the defiant teen remained standing in the doorway. The girls exchanged looks with each other. Eren didn’t seem to catch it. The two remained silent, and Eren seemed to have enough and went to his room. At the slam of his door the two girls started to talk.

 

“Mikasa, I don’t know what to do. Eren has been starting to talk to Levi more, and I’m worried about what going to happen after homecoming. I mean, I would like to keep dating him, but I have feeling he won’t.”

 

Mikasa sighed and pulled her hair back into a bun, and gave Annie a reassuring glance, “Eren is too dense to pick up on Levi’s flirting or any attempts to get close, so don’t worry so much. He likes you Annie, Eren wouldn’t just go dress shopping because he planned on ending what you guys have after Homecoming. Plus” Mikasa dropped her arms to her side, “You guys haven’t even been dating for a week. Calm down.”

 

Annie crossed her legs beneath her on the couch, “Yeah yeah I know. I just don’t wanna go through heartbreak y’know? I’m fully aware of Eren’s dating habits, and so is everyone else. I hear people predicting how long I’ll last before I’m old news and single again. Of course I could just go kick their asses.”

 

Mikasa chuckled, “Yeah that’ll get them to back off. I can honestly say I don’t know what to tell you about Eren though. Just trust him, okay? I know he doesn’t have the best reputation but none of the those girls really cared to stick around with him when they found out he couldn’t afford a lot of the things they wanted. You’ll be the first that will actually care for him. He probably wants to stay with you, Annie.”

 

That made the blonde have a bit more hope, but she was still visibly worried about any threat to her new relationship. She sighed and decided to change topics, “So you wanna see my dress?”

 

“Hell yeah I do,” Mikasa gave her a grin, and the two excitedly pulled the dress out.

* * *

 

Eren slammed his door shut and the moment he did that he heard the girls talking to each other in the living room. Annie sounded worried. Eren frowned slightly and cracked his door back open to listen in on the conversation. He regretted it instantly when he heard Mikasa’s response to whatever Annie said earlier. Levi flirting with him? Not possible, he never noticed it. They barely talked to each other until recently. There was definitely no flirting. He was more upset that Mikasa said he was too dense to pick up on that stuff. He picked up on it more than he lead on. The brunet preferred the ignorance from time to time.

 

Though his thoughts drifted back to Levi. He felt confused, and couldn’t come to terms with what his sister had said. He closed the door to his room, not wanting to hear any more and moved to lay on his unmade bed. He tried to recall everything Levi has said to him. Recently there was a disagreement, but suddenly friendly gestures were becoming a thing over this week. Eren bit his lip in an attempt to process anything  he could have missed. He couldn’t think of anything.

 

The frustrated teen rolled over to lie on his stomach. This was ridiculous, he and Levi were only doing partner things like meeting up to work on the project. They were putting their feud aside for the sake of the projec- wait when did he care about the damn project? Eren pushed himself up to sit cross legged on his bed. He recalled not caring at the start, and suddenly caring was the only thing on his mind. Maybe this was the thing he missed. Suddenly Levi managed to get him to care about their grade. Well, Levi was going to see how little he cared about the silly partnership tomorrow after school.

* * *

 

Thursday afternoon couldn’t come fast enough. Levi was practically bouncing out his seat during his last period. He kept glancing over at Eren to see that the brunet was more interested in the ceiling tiles above. He snorted at the sight but his eyes shot straight to the clock. The bell was going to ring in 3...2...1. The sound burst through the classroom like a call from heaven. Levi started to pack his stuff into his bag and waited for Eren to stand from his desk.

 

With a yawn, the tanned teen pushed up from his seat and shot bored glance Levi’s way, “You ready or what? I want to get this done and over with.”

 

His heart dropped to his feet. Levi was confused about the sudden shift in attitude, and he nodded quickly. His grey eyes stared at the ground as the two teens made their way to his car. As they emerged from the building, Eren was attacked by his lil’ blonde girlfriend. He sneered at her before continuing to his car, in hopes that Eren would follow. As he arrived to the black vehicle he averted his gaze to the couple.

 

Eren smiled at her, showing his brilliant white teeth as he went to kiss her goodbye on the cheek and made his way to Levi. That smile vanished, and Eren tugged his grey beanie lower and tugged on his flannel shirt in attempts to either stay warm or make himself less noticeable. Levi sighed through his nose, and got in his car. With a turn of the keys and quick plug in of his iPhone he was blasting his alternative music as his partner half hazardly threw his bag into the back and sat on the passenger side. “Oh I didn’t realize you liked the Artic Monkeys. Cool I guess.”

 

Eren seemed to be a better mode as they made their way to Levi’s elaborate home. Levi pulled his Civic into the three car garage and looked over to Eren, “Welcome to my humble home.”

 

“Dude I was here not too long ago. Don’t act like its been years.”

 

“It has been years Eren,” Levi commented as he got his stuff out of the trunk of his car, “We haven’t talked to each other properly until recently. It has been about, oh I don’t know, t-”

 

“Two years,” Eren cut him off, and glanced over his shoulder, “I get it, we used to be good friends. Can we get this project done please? I don’t want to stay longer than necessary.”

 

Levi slammed the trunk shut, “We have the house to ourselves so there shouldn’t be any interruptions.”

 

The shorter teen shoved past Eren to lead him to the living room. The large area was spacious and peaceful. It was the perfect study spot, and it always calmed Levi down. Flowers were in various parts of the room, and a large window allowed a great view of the backyard. The living room just screamed peace to Levi, but he wasn’t sure it would calm Eren’s nerves. He seemed on edge, and that made Levi more cautious. Things had started to go so well. It was childish to assume things could go back to normal.

 

Eren crossed his legs and fell to the carpet with a soft thud, he pulled his backpack into his lap during the process and dug out the binder he kept his part of the project in. Levi mimicked the actions, and pulled out a small poster board in the process. “Alright let’s get started.”

 

They worked in silence for thirty minutes. Thirty long minutes. Levi tried to make conversation with Eren but he would quickly shut them down with a nod or a scowl. So only instructions were given when necessary, but Eren was moving painfully slow. Levi couldn’t take it anymore, “What the fuck is your problem? You seemed fucking fine with working with me yesterday why is today suddenly different?”

Eren lifted those brilliant eyes to give him a bored look. The tanned teen just sneered before resuming his writing. “Oh look at this! Eren fucking Jaeger is able to ignore me. That’s a first.”

 

There was an audible snap and the wooden pencil that Eren was holding was now in two pieces. His eyes flicked back to Levi with an angry expression across his features. “You’re one to talk. You’ve been bothering me non-stop since Freshman year. You constantly try to argue with me, or get some rise out of me. It’s like you’re obsessed with me!”

 

Levi rose to his feet, his fist clenched and Eren did the same, “You’re the one always picking fights, Eren. You can’t handle anything without fighting, and you yell so fucking much. You trying to seem tough?”

 

The two teens continued to shout at each other, and Levi was becoming aware of the how close they were getting. With each insult thrown, they would take a step towards each other. Eren was bristling and his arms tense like he was ready to throw a punch in Levi’s direction. Levi sighed through his nose when Eren continued to rant and he began to lose interest in fighting, “Whatever, why don’t you just shut the fu-”

 

The breath was knocked out of Levi was his back was slammed into the ground, Eren was fuming above him. His arm was pulled back, ready punch Levi’s face but Levi was quicker. He changed positions to where Eren was below him and he pinned both of the angry teens arms down. It was a bit of a struggle but nothing that he couldn’t handle. His football training came in handy with that. Eren squirmed beneath him, “Get the fuck off me asshole! Let me go!”

 

Levi remained as he was, “Why would I do that? You’ll just start hitting me,” he sneered, “Really Eren, I just wanted to try and be nice to you. Just once I wanted things to go back to how they were two years ago.”

 

The brunet calmed down a bit, “Quit living in the past, Levi”

 

Levi smirked, “I liked the past, I don’t know about you but I’ll never forget those stupid adventures we went on.”

 

Levi took an opportunity to try and get Eren to calm down even more. It seemed to help as the teen tried to recall what he was talking about. The fire in his bright teal eyes died down a bit.

 

Eren relaxed in Levi’s grip, “Yeah, I have scars from those,” he smiled, suddenly forgetting that he was supposed to be angry at the person sitting on top of him, “We were crazy back then, well still are I guess.” Eren chuckled and a smile brightened his features.

 

Levi couldn’t help what happened next. That smile made his heart race, and those eyes, god Eren’s eyes were just fucking magical. He just couldn’t help going down and putting his lips against Eren’s very soft ones. It was just them in their own fucked up world. No girlfriends, no anger, no nothing. Eren seemed to forget he had a girlfriend too, and Levi found that Eren was kissing back.

 

Levi’s grip on Eren’s wrist loosened as he went to deepen the kiss. Eren seemed to snap back into reality because he took the chance to shove Levi off him, and push himself away. Confusion was clear in his eyes as he touched his lips and then glanced over to the shocked Levi. “E-Eren...I’m so sorry I don’t kn-”

 

“I have to go,” Eren spoke quickly and started to shove his belongings in his bag. His fingers dug in his pockets, searching for his phone. He gave up on looking for it, and resumed to zip up his bag and got ready to leave. Eren paused for a moment, “This never happened, I just can’t. I have a girlfriend, and I would like it to last longer than a week.”

 

Levi still remained on the floor and nodded his head, still in shock about what was happening. Eren tightened his jaw as he darted out of the room. The shock was over when the front door slammed shut, and left Levi alone with his thoughts.

 

“Shit, what did I do?”

 

He muttered to himself as he placed his face in his palms. Levi wasn’t sure how he was going to recover from this mess.

 

 


	13. Chapter 13

He should’ve listened to Mikasa. He should’ve taken Annie’s worries more seriously. He should’ve done a lot of things more differently. As the cold wind tore at his thin clothes he became so very aware of what went wrong. What he did wrong. He was misleading, and he remembered what had happened two years ago. That memory brought up mixed feelings, and a lot of guilt.

 

Eren gritted his teeth, the feeling of Levi’s lips against his were still very real. He had kissed back, of all things. He hated himself for that. Eren didn’t return any feelings for Levi...or so he thought. There had been a warmth the flowed through his body as soon as their lips touched, maybe it was as soon as he was able to smile at past childhood memories, but it had certainly been there. It was a warmth he didn’t get when he kissed Annie, and that confused the fuck out Eren. He didn’t know how he was going to face the short teen the next day.

 

It took an hour for him to get back to his shambled home. Mikasa was ever so patient with him when he got in the door too. She waited a full five minutes before the questions started to leak. Eren gave her a routine of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ before going past her to lock himself in his room. He took note that he had been doing that a lot this past week but there was nothing better he could really think of to get some alone time. His phone vibrated in his back pocket and saw that he had received a text from Levi.

 

_I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me._

 

Eren ignored it. He didn’t feel like having his thoughts on his supposed enemy. Eren just wanted to listen to his music and sleep. Nothing more, and maybe focus on Annie. Annie, poor Annie. Eren groaned as he landed on his side on his bed. Annie was very aware of his reputation with girls. He didn’t want to just leave her feeling like she was going to be yesterday’s news. Of course she was also aware of what happened between Levi and Eren. Levi putting his feelings on the table for Eren to just completely push away. He was an awful friend, they had be best friends since elementary and he just shoots Levi down in an asshole way.

 

_Eren, please respond. I feel awful, I didn’t want to mess things up...again._

 

Another text from Levi. In reality it was Eren who should feel worse and he was the one who let things get messed up. It was clear Levi wanted to be in contact with Eren again, the messages made that a big give away.

 

_Please?_

 

Eren’s fingers hovered over his phone’s keyboard, ready to give a response to that desperate plea. Just as he started to text, there was a knock on his door. He placed his cell phone down and went to open it. Annie stood, a worried look in her eyes but her facial expression was stoic. Eren wasn’t thinking he dragged her close to him and smashed his lips against her’s. She was surprised at first, and hesitant but eventually accepted it.

 

The two ended up making out on Eren’s bed, and he eventually had to turn off his phone from Levi’s erratic messaging. Annie raised a brow when he did so but he brushed it off. After a few minutes Annie was resting with him against the wall, both of them staring at the posters on the opposite side of the room. “What happened at Levi’s?”

 

“What? Nothing,” Eren flicked his eyes to meet her blue one, “Nothing happened, we just got into a little disagreement and I left. I was stupid for going.”

 

The blonde seemed skeptical at the response, searching his eyes to see if he was lying. She grabbed his tanned hand and started to play with his fingers, “You weren’t stupid for going. I was stupid for overreacting. I was just thinking about what happened in the past between you two. Eren, I think he still has feelings for you.”

 

Eren gave her a reassuring squeeze of the hand, “Don’t worry, I’m yours. I’m not gonna let his assholeness get in the way of our relationship. You shouldn’t either,” He raised his brows slightly, “Do you not trust me?”

 

Annie shook her head quickly, a worried expression coming over her features, “No, I trust you. I just don’t trust him.”

 

Eren sighed and used his free hand to tuck a loose hair behind her ear, “Don’t worry so much about Levi. Just ignore him and things will be fine.”

 

Annie nodded and let go of his hand, and excused herself. She said something about the girls heading out to the movies but Eren was in a haze as he turned his phone back on. He had just lied to her. It came with ease, and he felt slightly panicked. She was right to worry about Levi ruining their relationship. He glanced at his phone to see he had received a handful of messages from Levi, two of them were apart of the same long text.

 

_Eren, I can’t say I’m sorry enough. I know you have a gf and I don’t want to ruin your relationship. It may come off that way from me but I truly mean no harm. Please, I want to go back to being friends with you. I know we have gotten in a handful of arguments and…(cont. 1 of 2)_

_disagreements over the past few years. So please respond. Again I’m sorry._

Eren felt sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to hurt Levi again in all honesty, but he wasn’t comfortable with the idea of his old best friend gone enemy still had feelings for him. The kiss was still on his mind. That dream he had earlier in the week became clear that it was Levi that had been moaning his name, and that made him shudder. Eren mentally smacked himself for letting those thoughts drift into his mind after he just made out with his girlfriend.

 

His fingers hovered over the keyboard once more and he resumed texting back a reply.

 

_Please leave me alone._

 

Eren pushed send and waited to see if he would get a response back. It never came. He was thankful Levi respected his request, he just needed time to think. He needed time to process these new feelings he had towards the raven haired teen. They were different from how he felt towards Annie. He got a warm feeling, almost as if it was right. His brain was telling him it was wrong. He was in a relationship, he shouldn’t be kissing other people. Eren groaned, it had never occurred to him to date a guy. Maybe if he did go for Levi he would be able to stay in a more stable relationship. Yet he and Annie seemed to be doing fine.

 

Eren sighed, “Shit...I don’t know what to do anymore.”

 

Things were changing so rapidly.

 

* * *

 

Eren didn’t see Levi on Friday. Mostly because he went out his way to avoid him. He sat in different parts of the room in their shared classes and took different routes. Saturday couldn’t have come anymore slowly.

 

Homecoming turned out to be more of a competition for girls to show off their dresses and dates. Eren ended up dancing a small bit with Annie, who looked stunning in her silver dress that flowed in the back but was cut short in the front. Eren called it the Mullet Dress and he got smacked upside the head. He didn’t regret the name at all. Mikasa wore a red shoulder dress and Petra...well he didn’t see Petra. She was always moving so he never got a good look at it.

 

When he wasn’t dancing with Annie, he was leaning against the wall bored out of his mind. The girls were doing their own thing and he was ditched again. He scanned to see mostly dateless guys against the wall with him. One of them just happened to be Levi. Eren went red in the face, he didn’t expect to see Levi. He barely recognized him. His black hair was slicked back with a few strands hanging loosely in his face, and his undercut was more visible. He wore a blue tie with a black vest and white dress shirt. It managed to show how slim he was despite football. His black slacks matched with rest of his outfit, and he didn’t look bad at all. He looked older for once.

 

Levi’s eyes met with his and his thin brows shot up in surprise. There was a hesitant look that cross his face before he made his way towards Eren. Eren contemplated taking off, but decided to stand his ground. He felt a bit insecure next to Levi, though they were practically matching, Eren thought Levi pulled the look off a bit better. “Hey.”

 

“Hi.”

 

Levi leaned against the wall next to Eren, “Where’s your date?”

 

“Doing something with the girls. Do you not have a date?”

 

“Nope. I didn’t want to put up with girl drama.”

 

Eren tensed, he was positive Levi was being bitter about Eren avoiding him yesterday. “Why are you even over here Levi?”

 

It was his turn to tense up, “I’m sure you can figure that out on your own. Look,” Levi’s intense stormy eyes flicked over to him, “I’m not gonna deny it. I still have feelings for you, but I don’t want that to affect our chances of friendship.”

 

“You kissed me, and you don’t want that to affect our chances for friendship?”

 

“You fucking kissed me back. If anything I am being the nice one here. After you broke my heart, I’m still trying to be friends with you and give you a second chance,” Levi spoke with a strained voice, as if he was trying not to yell, “I still have faith in you Eren. I know you, maybe not as well now, but I would like to get back to that point.”

 

Eren stayed silent for a few moments as he scanned the crowd for Annie, the music was blaring and making it difficult to think. He rolled his eyes and knew was probably going to regret his next statement, “Let’s get out of the gym to talk. The hall is more quiet and I can actually fucking think.”

 

Levi looked shocked but followed Eren out of the gym. The two walked in silence until they got halfway down the hall. Eren finally spoke, “Okay, since we are being open and honest with each other right now, I’ll say this only once. I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss,” Levi seemed to smirk slightly, “I felt guilty as hell. I remembered why we stopped being friends, and I was an ass I get that. But,” Eren sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “I’m in a relationship. That kiss made me feel bad for Annie...mostly because I...I…”

 

Eren felt heat rise to his cheeks and he couldn’t finish the sentence, “You liked the kiss.”

 

Eren looked at Levi, his cheeks red from being flustered. He just nodded his head, and stood there awkwardly. He didn’t know what to do and he just stared at Levi. Levi seemed to be thinking intently, his brows furrowed slightly. Levi apparently came to a conclusion because suddenly Levi was closer but hesitant. He was ready to take a step back when it was Eren that went in to kiss him.

 

Guilt, and anger were all put into the kiss as he managed to get Levi pushed up against the wall next to the lockers. He didn’t know what he was doing anymore, but it felt right. It all felt right to his body, but there was lingering thought that was trying to push forward. A thought about how he would be breaking Annie’s heart. How he knew he couldn’t be with her anymore. How suddenly the idea of lasting more than week was just out the window. He was supposed to be mad at Levi. Though he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

 

Maybe it was pent up sexual tension or maybe it was the fact there had always been feelings for Levi, and he had just pushed them down until now. Levi nipped at his lower lip and his nails dug slightly into Eren’s back. Eren had tangled his hands in Levi’s hair and forced Levi mouth open. That earned him a moan as he pushed his tongue into Levi’s mouth to explore.

 

The sound of a throat clearing caused them to jump apart. Levi’s hair was no longer neat and now mussed up, and Eren’s face burned with guilt as he turned around to find Armin standing behind him. Armin looked disappointed and that hurt Eren emotionally. “Eren...I don’t know what to say.”

 

Levi stood in silence and was looking down at his shoes. Eren’s mouth was gaped open trying to find an explanation. It didn’t come until the sound of heels clicking down the hall got his attention. “There you are! I was looking all over...for...what the hell is going on?”

 

Annie’s voiced raised slightly when she caught sight of Levi and Eren. She looked over to Armin, but he refused to make eye contact with her. Eren looked down in shame, “Annie, I’m sorry.”

 

There was an audible sigh, “This has to be a fucking joke? Of all the nights you cheat on me and it’s homecoming. Plus it was with that fucking midget over there,” Eren flinched, “You told me not to worry about him interfering with our relationship. I fucking believed you! What else have you lied about?”

 

Eren felt tears stinging at his eyes, he was so stupid. “This wasn’t the first time, Annie. You deserve the truth. Thursday we had kissed but I left,” He looked up to see she how upset she really was, “I fucking left because I thought of you. I felt fucking awful. I feel awful now.”

 

“Well you obviously weren’t thinking of me just now. We’re done Eren. You can go fuck your little boytoy for all I care, cause we are fucking done.”

 

Annie went back to the gym, most likely to find Mikasa. Armin was still there, standing in silence, “Well Armin what do you have to say to me?”

 

The blond looked up at him, a serious expression crossed his features, “I have nothing to say. You brought this one yourself. I’m not mad Eren, but you really messed up. I have to get back to Jean, and you better figure out how to make things right.”

 

It was Levi and Eren in the hall once more. “Eren, I’m so-”

 

“Levi shut up. Quit apologizing, I brought this on myself,” He turned to look him in the eye, “I made the choice to kiss you and now I have to pay for it. Honestly I hope you’re happy, I’m not with her anymore and I’m gonna be miserable.”

 

Levi frowned and crossed his arms, “I’m not happy that you got dumped. I don’t want you to be miserable. Don’t pin this on me.”

 

Eren groaned, “You’re right, sorry. I just don’t know what to do.”

 

“You want to get out of here? If you want you can crash at my place.”

 

The brunet nodded, “All the girls are gonna be at my house tonight. I probably shouldn’t be there. Armin is going to Jean’s tonight, so you’re really my only option.”

 

Levi motioned towards the end of the hallway, “Well let’s get going then.”

 

As soon as the two inside the house, they were all over each other. Levi was, once again, pushed up against the wall as Eren demanded to be the dominant one. Levi wasn’t willing to let that happen again, so he fought back. He nipped and licked, even sucked at Eren’s lower lip in an attempt to gain the dominant edge. God he had wanted to do make out with Eren for so long and now it was finally happening. Eren pulled away, and Levi let a whine escape his mouth. He blushed at the foreign noise and looked up at Eren with confusion.

 

“Levi this is wrong, I just got dumped. I should be grieving, not making out with the guy who was my enemy for a long time.”

 

The shorter teen sighed, and grabbed Eren’s hand as a form of comfort, “You knew that you and Annie weren’t going to last,” His intense gaze met Eren’s, “That’s why you aren’t more upset. Sure you feel bad about kissing me and her finding out, but you were going to dump her sooner or later.”

 

Eren glanced down to his feet, “I just...I don’t even know what I should be feeling right now,” He looked back up with more serious gaze, “I just know that I hurt a friend, and I lied to her.”

 

Levi dropped the tan hand to cross his arms, “Why don’t we stop focusing on the negatives that happened tonight and go watch a movie in my room, yeah?”

 

“I would actually like that.”

 

The two got changed into sweats and baggy t-shirts as Shrek played on the large screen TV. “Dude you are so fucking spoiled it’s not even real.”

 

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Levi looked at his hand in a bored fashion, “I simply ask for the world, and I get it.”

 

Levi grinned over at Eren who looked shocked for a moment. The grin dropped into a concerned look, “What’s wrong?”

 

Eren shook his head, “Nothing. It’s just been a really long time since I’ve seen you grin.”

 

He returned his attention to the screen as Levi shrugged. Eren wasn’t going to admit how it made his heart skip a beat, or how he thought it was fucking cute when Levi smiled. He wasn’t going to admit that he felt warm all over as Levi rested his head on Eren’s shoulder, and Eren did his best to ignore how Levi smelled of mint. He was supposed to be sad, heart broken, pretty much every sign of dumped. Though he wasn’t. He was content, but that guilt still sat in his mind. Annie was never going to forgive, but Eren seemed to be finding that he might be okay with that.

 


	14. Chapter 14

Eren woke up in a haze. There was extra weight on his body and black head of hair just below his chin. The sleepy teen blinked a few times before realizing where he was an who was on top of him.

He felt conflicted as memories of the night before rushed back in. He didn’t need to think about that shit in first thing in the morning but here he was.

Levi shifted on top of him and Eren remained still in an attempt to not wake him up. The brunet blushed slightly when the thoughts of kissing Levi popped into his head. It had felt so right, and he struggled to even control himself. It was clear there was a lot of pent up sexual tension.

Levi shifted again and managed to push himself up to rest on Eren’s chest. He blinked lazily, his already narrow eyes now looked like the slits of a disrupted cat. Eren thought he looked cute with his bed head but he wouldn’t say it out loud. Levi stifled a yawn, “G’mornin’, what time is it?”

He looked around for a clock, and he groaned when he found one, “It’s seven in the morning why are we awake?”

Eren chuckled as he shifted to a more comfortable position, Levi groaned as he had to change his position as well, “I’ve always been an early riser.”

“Ugh why? It’s so much better to sleep in.”

Levi mumbled as he attempted to bury his face against Eren’s side to keep the sun from hitting his face. “You’re awfully cuddly and touchy for someone who has OCD with cleanliness.

The raven haired teen shrugged, “You’re different. You’ve always been different.”

Eren blushed. Levi didn’t seem to have a problem speaking his mind anymore. Yeah Levi would stutter here and there when he gets nervous, but two years ago Levi would’ve never been able to say that. Eren turned to his side and Levi glared up at him, “Stop moving shithead.”

The brunet laughed as the grumpy teen moved once more into Eren’s chest, “You keep letting the sun hit my face, it’s annoying.”

“Wow I wonder if people would still think you are cool after seeing you first thing in the morning. So grumpy.”

Levi ignored him, and his breath came out in longer intervals. Eren rolled his eyes at how fast the shorter teen went to sleep. That had to be a record. Eren decided he might as well go back to sleep too.

* * *

This time Levi woke up before Eren. An obnoxious ringtone stirred him from his sleep, and he scrambled to look for it. He was careful not to shake Eren awake as he found the phone on the nightstand and he noticed it was Eren’s.

Levi hesitated to answer but he decided Eren deserved to sleep in after last night, “Eren’s phone.”

“Who is this?”

“Levi, who is this?”

“Eren’s sister. Why isn’t he answering his own phone? And why are you answering it? What did you do to Eren?”

Levi sighed and looked at the clock, only forty minutes had passed since he last woke up. He was not in the mood for this shit. “Slow the fuck down, I just woke up,” Levi stretched, “Eren’s fine, he’s asleep on my bed.”

“Why the fuck is he on your bed?!”

“Sleeping,” Levi clucked his tongue, “You should listen better. We fell asleep watching a movie so you can stop worrying about his asshole.”

There was momentary silence on the other end, Levi thought Mikasa must of hung up. “Put Eren on the phone.”

“No, he needs to sleep.”

“No he needs to explain to me why he cheated on Annie with _you_ of all people. I’ve never trusted you, and now I have more of reason to not trust you.”

Levi frowned, “Calm down it’s not like he fucked me. He just made out with me once, I don’t see why this is being blown up into a bigger deal than it is. This doesn’t have to do anything with his rep with the ladies does it?”

There was silence on the other end, and there was a new voice beside him, “Levi? Who are you talking to?”

“Was that Eren? Put him on the phone.”

Levi covered the phone with his hand, “It’s your sister. She wants to talk with you, sorry if I woke you up.”

He uncovered the device, “Here’s your brother.”

“Hello?”

Levi waited patiently, and he could hear Mikasa scolding Eren on the other end. Eren started to frown and Levi cocked his head in curiousity. Eren shook his head in frustration, “Mikasa just listen to me okay? You need to hear my side of the story too. I didn’t me-” Eren got interrupted, “No, listen. I didn’t mean for her to get hurt. I didn’t want her to find out like that.”

His brows seemed to get closer together as his frown deepened and Mikasa’s voice got louder, “Calm down. You’ll wake up everyone at the house, and I know they are still sleeping. I promise I’ll talk to Annie, but I won’t be getting back together with her,” His features softened, “It just didn’t click with her. She’s great don’t get me wrong, but...I don’t think I’m really gonna be going for anymore girls anytime soon.”

Eren sat in silence as he waited for his sister to finish speaking, “I’ll come home later. It’s too early now and I would actually like to sleep. You should too. Good bye, Mikasa.”

He closed the phone and put it on silent, “There nothing should wake us up now. Sorry about that.”

Eren motioned for Levi to come lie back down with him. Levi hesitated, Eren’s words ringing in his head for a few moments before he complied to lie back down. His head hit the soft pillows and Eren’s warm arms wrapped around him. Levi let out a content sigh, “It’s amazing how we were mortal enemies and now look at us.”

He felt a chuckle on the back of his neck, “Yeah, it’s kinda funny how that works,” Eren scooted closer to Levi, his chest resting on the shorter teen’s back, “But I really don’t want to think about that right now. Right now I just want to sleep. Okay?”

Levi’s eyes fluttered shut as he whispered, “Okay.”

Sleep was their only peace and escape right now, and they were willing to live in that peace for a few more hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow it's been a while. Sorry for the long wait guys!

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!  
> Just letting you know a Different Tale is on a hiatus at the moment. I am simply struggling to write the next chapter, I can't decide what to do.  
> So in the mean time I will be doing this AU. It's my first AU ever so hopefully you guys enjoy it.


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